


The Path Not Taken (Under Construction)

by ImpureLily



Category: Fire Emblem: Soen no Kiseki/Akatsuki no Megami | Fire Emblem Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Family Feels, Friendship, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Rating May Change, Triggers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-08
Updated: 2015-09-15
Packaged: 2018-04-13 14:08:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 29,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4524930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImpureLily/pseuds/ImpureLily
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The path intended was one away from the war, away from the bloodshed. But things rarely go according to plan. The path they take leads them to the front lines and no matter how hard he tires, the possibility of losing her to either her mind or the blade grows with each rising sun looming over the bloody fields of Tellius.<br/>Trigger warning in future chapters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Cold Metal

It was warm that day. The gentile clouds lazily passing over head, pushed by the subtle breeze sweeping over Crimea. If you were out in the open, you could see the lush green forest surrounding the trail forged out of countless wheels, feet and hooves passing over for years. Yale wasn't in the sun. The tall figure stayed in the concealing shadows of the brush. The only ray of sunlight hitting his face was the small amount strong enough to pass through the layers of leaves hung over head. He wasn't there because he hated the sun; he would have loved to be out in the open, soaking in the warmth of the sweet spring air and not concealed by the itchy brush he squatted behind. But he had to be hidden, out in sun he could be seen and right now Yale needed to be invisible to any soldiers that could come out of the crumbling castle. It was only way he could find her.

Yale clenched the handle of his axe until his course knuckles turned white and his palms began to sweat, thinking about how foolish he had been. He knew Daein soldiers were in the area; but, instead of going to a port where the army had yet to invade, they'd taken the quickest route, one that was bound to have troops stationed there. It wasn't a bad idea to be honest, just risky. From the information he had gathered they were still allowing ships to sail in and out if the humble port town. They, of course, checked every ship for Crimean refugee soldiers, but he knew it wouldn't be impossible to grab a one heading towards Begnion. It would have went well if he had argued a little harder with Gwen about getting rid of their weapons to avoid suspicion, but he knew it was a lost cause. The mage had always felt safer carrying her tome and he had to admit, though the he was decent in a fist fight, the fighter was better at protecting them both with his axe. Regardless, he knew they should try to sell them, even in their deteriorating condition there was always a buyer and they could use the money; but they didn't sell them. Both strolled into the town with his axe strapped to his back and Gwen's tome within reach on her belt, her head held high while Yale's was just the opposite.

He was shocked at how far they were able to go in to town, and for a split second, he believed that his fear was merely paranoia. That belief stopped however when a pompous man with his head held higher than Gwen's, and dressed in the typical Daein onyx armor, stepped in front of their path. He halted them to a stop with a palm facing the duo as the other hand clenched a well sharpened javelin. He couldn't remember exactly what he had told them, it was something along the lines of "In the name of our king, Ashnard, I demand that you drop your weapons."

Yale was more than happy to oblige, but Gwen wasn't. The mage had mouthed off to the soldier as Yale tried to tell her to shut up; wanting to convince the soldier that they were only there to sell the weapons. They might have gotten away with a slap on the wrist if Gwen hadn't reached for her tome. That's when a soldier, that had been hidden nearby, stepped up to hook his arm tightly around Gwen's neck and yank the book out of her hand to arrest her. All sense of reasoning disappeared as Yale's instincts kicked in when he saw the Daein start to strangle Gwen. Without even thinking of the consequences, the fighter pulled the soldier off the young mage and slammed his fist into the man's jaw, causing all hell to break loose as the bone snapped under his knuckles. As the man fell to the ground, Yale quickly took hold of Gwen's arm and ran past the hurt soldier and on looking civilians as he pushed forward into the line of tall trees surrounding half of the port town. When they were far enough for a breather he decided to make a mistake that would haunt him for years. He told Gwen to run in the other direction, towards the path they had taken earlier that day, and to hide under a wooden bridge they had passed until Yale had lost the soldiers. It probably would have somewhat worked, even if he was caught she would still be safe, if only someone hadn't of seen them split up. That's the only explanation for how they knew they were not together, whether it was another soldier or even a civilian he didn't know, all he did know was that after he had ran off, they took her instead.

Gwen had always been faster than Yale; even with walking she always seemed to end up in front of him, which was bad considering her weapon of choice. She should always be behind him or at least by his side, but no. Despite her short stature, the mage had always managed to take long steps. So when Gwen sprinted off, Yale knew she was far away from where he was. That's why he didn't make it in time when he heard her scream his name. The fighter's heart still sank every time he thought about how desperate and scared her voice sounded as she was attacked. Yale had hardly ever heard her become scared before or even looked remotely terrified. Now that he knew what it really sounded like, he never wanted to hear that sound again, and it pained him when her scream echoed in his nightmares. By the time he ran to the source of her cry it was too late. All that was left for him to find was her emptied satchel and cloak scattered across the dirt path. The scene made him sick, but what caused his stomach coil in knots and set his blood to boil to the point that he could slaughter a thousand Daein troops, was a puddle of blood soaking into the rough wool of the teal cloak. With rage fueling him, Yale took Gwen's discarded belongings before he followed the path back into the village as the sun began to set over the vengeful fighter.

That night, Yale waited outside a tavern for a drunken Daein to stagger out of the building. It didn't take long for one to stumble out of the warm atmosphere of the crowded tavern and into the cool late fall air, mumbling incoherent slurred phrases. When he passed the dark alley Yale pulled the black armored man into the shadows and held the blade of his dagger to the man's neck. It was amusing to see how the feeling of the cold metal on the man's neck could sober him up enough to snap back into reality, which was exactly what Yale needed. The soldier had told him that Gwen was alive and was taken to a prison, but he didn't know which one and only gave him the name of a few. Yale thanked the soldier and then snapped his neck. He didn't do it to cover his track, Yale killed him only out of his new found hatred for Daein; though, it did help that he recognized the voice to be the man with the javelin. Back then he was the man responsible for taking Gwen away; now, Yale no longer blamed the him for Gwen's arrest but he'd be lying if he said it didn't feel good to have the soldier's body jerk and then go limp after the bone snapped under his hands. That was not his only victim that night. Several other Daeins walked out that building or strolled by in patrol were pulled into the dark alley. Each one either had their neck snapped or slashed open. He may regret it later in life, but that was doubtful. He never did before and he didn't stuck around but he was sure that the villagers would be punished for his actions.

After that night, he began his search for her, and after two months, countless dead Daein troops and five prisons, he came to his last lead. If Gwen wasn't here then he didn't know where else to look. Nearly every single guard now only seemed to tell him the names of prisons he had already investigated, and he doubted that they would take her to a place so far off from where they had captured her. If Canteus was a no go, Yale didn't know what he would do. He dreaded the thought of her being forever lost to him, but he also feared of what he would find of she was there. She wouldn't be the same, that was for certain; but Goddess, he hoped she was alive. Seeing the teenager dead would no doubt drive Yale further into madness; but if she was alive, Yale was sure that something had to have happen while she was in there. The fighter just knew it and he feared what it was and how it would change her usual carefree cheerful demeanor. He had sheltered Gwen since forever, leaving her to know only small hardships such as missing a few meals, working long summer days for very little reward or huddling around a fire to keep warm in the harsh winters; even a few close calls with bandits, but nothing like torture or imprisonment.

Gwen needed to be there with her sanity intact and every hour that he waited, crouched down in a patch of dirt behind that itchy and smelly shrub, felt like an eternity. He had to be patient thought, this was how it always was with the others. Hidden there full of regret until a guard would wander outside for him to capture. Once in a while more than one would come out, leading to more dead soldiers, not that he minded that; the only issue was taking them down without causing alarm to the rest. The only really good thing that came out of that was training what little stealth he had. He would need all of it if he was to ever sneak into the prison she was in. Yale could be stealthy, but no that stealthy. The dagger he had helped a lot but he was far more comfortable with his axe leading to the possible choice of going berserk and just charging the place, but that would be stupid. Yale may have had the help of surprising with the others, but there was no way he could fight an army of fully trained soldiers. Yale couldn't even remember the last time he had a decent lesson in combat. His only option would be to sneak into the dank prison and try to attempt to get Gwen out without anyone noticing; but the changes of that option where zero. They could just dart for the door if she was in good enough health but that was also doubtful. Yale would never know if he needed to do that though, not until a guard came out; but that would never happened.

Yale's dark narrow eyes shot open wide at a noise he didn't expect to hear. An alarming sound of people speaking over the creaking noise of wheels bumping over rocks. He peeked up from the shrub and watched as a relatively large group wandered towards the castle with a great deal of shock on his face.

"What in the hell are they doing here?" He asked to no one but himself. Did they plan on breaking out the prisoners or were they unaware of the castles new purposes? If it was the later than they were in for a big surprise. Part of him wanted to try and warn them; but how would he do that? Stroll right up to them? What if they were Daeins themselves, then what? He didn't know. Socializing was never Yale strong point. He stood up slowly, still debating on what to do. The possibility of just yelling at them came to mind but as soon as he was up completely he quickly slammed back down into the dirt below him, cursing under his breath. Why are there members of the beast tribe outside of Gallia? Yes, he was close to the border, but still not close enough to catch a glimpse of a beast, let alone three. They could just be more prisoners; though, if they were prisoners they'd either be in chained, in cages, half dead. There was no way would they be completely free to move as they pleased. As he thought about it more, Yale remembered that the people of Crimea hated them almost just as much as the Daeins, so it could be an attempted barter, trade out a loved one for a Gallian. Yale thought about possibly joining them in doing that but decided against it, Gwen would never forgive him and Yale doubt that he had the courage to take on one of the beasts.

Getting back into a crouched position, Yale watched as the majority of the group started gathering up weapons from one of the carts while the light blue beast started to talk to a young man with blue hair clad in a red cape and two women, one in red holding the reins of a white horse and the other wearing a regal orange dress. Combining the orange clad woman, the two kids getting prepared to fight and the Gallian beasts, they were an odd looking group. But he was now certain of their mission, storm the castle, and now he would like nothing more than to join them. With their help, he could possibly find the girl who was hopefully in there waiting for him. The only thing stopping him from approaching the group were the damn beasts.

He had ran into their kind before when both he and Gwen were hired, along with another group of mercenaries, to protect a farmers cows from a few beast that were taking them. Yale had never seen them in this form before though, even at ten yards away he could make out their ears and tail sending a shiver down his spine. Just like the last time, he was getting an uneasy feeling from them, making him struggled with his decision to stay put and wait for them to bring the prisoners out, or to walk up and join them. He would have stayed like that until just the very last moment, but his inner turmoil was interrupted by the feeling of cold well sharpened steel pressing up against the nap of his neck. No doubt about it, that feeling really could snap a person back to reality in a matter of seconds.

Yale swore under his breath. He had been too busy looking at the beast that he didn't even think that they might send out scouts.

"Drop your weapon, please." a voice commanded in a tone that took him by surprise, it was if he had been asked to pass the salt. Yale, of course, obliged. There was no point in him taking on a group that big, nor did he have any desire to attack kids. So, Yale painfully loosened his death grip on the axe, not even realizing how tightly be had been holding it until he felt his hand ache, as a large hand reached out and quickly picked up the discarded weapon before taking away Yale's sack full of what little belongings he and Gwen had. As the hand took hold of Gwen's cloak, his own hand flinched out, trying to get it back.

"Stand up with your hands behind your head." the owner of the hand commanded in a sterner voice, noticing the fighter's movement. Yale retreated his and as he followed the instructions. It didn't surprise him that there was two, scouting alone wouldn't be the smartest idea. Then again, was it really smart for them to storm a castle?

"Are there any more weapons?" the calmer voice questioned.

"I have a dagger in my right boot." Yale replied as he stood up with his fingers now laced behind his head. There was a long pause after that and he began to wonder if they wanted the fighter to retrieve the dagger himself, but that would be weird, wouldn't it?

"Well."

"'Well, what?"

"Well, go get it."

"Get what?"

"The dagger." the other man made a groaning noise beside the fighter.

"The hell do I have to be the one digging through his sweaty boot?"

"Because I'm the one holding the lance to his neck."

There was a pause and he was tempted to turn to face them, but was stopped when he felt the hand slide into his boot for a split second before retrieving the dagger.

"There, I got it." He stated with annoyance, "Now can we go? I don't want to miss the fight."

"You shouldn't be so eager to fight." Yale felt the man remove the blade from his neck and gently pushed him forward with the staff of the weapon, forcing him to start towards their group.

"You're starting to sound like Titania." he grumble under his breath.

"That's because she's usually right."

"And you are?"

"More than you." before his capture could make any sort of comeback a voice called out as they closed the distance between the forest and the small army.

"That was surprisingly fast." the woman holding the white horse's reins spoke. Yale was quick to notice that her calling out to them took the attention away from whatever conversation she was holding to and directed towards him. Their piercing staring made his hand clench tight against his scalp as his nerves started to run on high speed.

"We'll it helps that we knew his exact location. Thank you Ranulf, you saved us a lot of trouble with that." he heard the voice add from behind him.

The light blue haired beast smirked, showing off deadly canines that made Yale's stomach sink. "Well, he wasn't exactly quiet. Nor is he the happiest person, is he? That's quite the scary look you got there."

"He's just probably pissed because of how easy it was to capture him." boasted the loud one, who was now standing beside the equally young man with the cape. Yale found that, who in closer view, he looked a younger then himself, but with the same built of muscle.

"Seriously, you wouldn't believe it, Ike. He should have at least given it some fight." The green haired fighter looked at him, smirking, "It was like you wanted to get captured." Yale felt anger as he saw the fighter's cocky green eyes narrow in silent accusation as his voice trailed off.

"I'm not the enemy." Yale had said, a little too harshly. He was sure it made him look even more suspicious, but he didn't want to be compared to scum like the Daein soldiers.

"Then why were you spying on us?" Ike, inquired. His blue eyes looking him over while his hand rested on the handle of the sword hung on his hip.

"I wasn't spying on you."

"Yea, because crouching down and hiding while staring at us without us knowing, definitely isn't spying." the fighter commented sarcastically.

Yale narrowed his eyes at the sarcasm. "I was waiting for a guard to come out." he wasn't surprised to see them gave a skeptical look.

"Why?" Yale quickly spun around the face the voice behind him; he had forgotten about the knight, but he no longer had a lance to his throat, which he assumed was a step towards trust. The man the same height as him with squinted eyes on a calm face, he was beginning to think he and the louder one were brothers; they did look a little alike with their almost matching green hair. Yale sighed. Might as well tell them, maybe then they would let me join them, he thought.

"A couple months ago, Daein soldiers took someone very close to me." Yale lowered his arms from his head and looked up at the castle's crumbling walls. "From what I have gathered, she might be here, if not then...then I don't know what I'm going to do if I can't find another prison."

"There are more prisons?" Yale looked over at the woman in orange and watched as her elegant features twist into sorrow. Frowning, he slowly nodded his head in reply at the young woman.

"I've only visited the ones that a few Daein soldiers have told me about," he jerked his head at the prison "this will be my fifth try and, so far as I know, I think I might have checked all of the ones surrounding the Capital."

"That's so sweet." Yale jumped at the unexpected sound of a young girl's voice.

He turned and looked down at one of the two kids he saw getting ready to attack, smiling up at him, her bright blue eyes shinning in delight as she clutched her hands to her chest.

"Um, Mist?" Ike stepped towards the young girl, but she startled him by spinning towards him, yelling for him to help Yale with determination in her voice.

"How many chances are we going to get to help someone have a happy ending in this war?" before the boy being question could answer, she spun back around to Yale, who was already confused by what she meant when she said 'happy ending'.

"What's your name?" she asked looking up at him, ignoring the negative ora he gave off.

"Ah, Yale?" he answered nervously looking down at the young girl.

"Don't worry Yale; we'll help you find your girlfriend, right Ike?"

"Girlfriend? Wait, we're not-" Yale held up his hands in defense, wanted to explain their relationship as he was cut off by whom he was beginning to assume was the leader of this group.

"Titania what do you think?" Ike asked the woman in red standing next to him.

She watched the fighter with a soft smile as his scowling face began to heat up from the deep blush, which no one seemed to notice or care.

"You're the commander, it's your decision; but, I do think we could use the help."

Ike nodded as he turned to the fighter, unfazed by his blush. "I know you were probably planning a more indirect approach, but would you be willing to join us?"

"I...I Would, but-"

"Good. I need Boyd, Oscar, Mordecai and Rhys to stay behind and watch over Princess Elincia and the merchants. The rest of you, come with me." Ike commanded waving an arm towards the entrance to the castle. The oldest did as he was commanded and started to walk back to the wagon leading his grumbling brother, a large Gallian and a worried stricken woman, who was a Princess? Did he really hear that? Maybe the better question right now was if they were really just going to waltz right in.

Shockingly, they were; and Yale watched in disbelief as nine of them casually walked into the castle after their commander. Yale hesitated, but soon followed their actions only to stall at the entrance due to the Gallian named Ranulf. Yale froze in place as he looked him up and down with violet and teal eyes; a small smirking was painted on his lip allowing a deadly canine to show, Yale didn't think his stomach could twist any tighter. The beast then shook his head with a chuckle and walked inside, motioning him to follow them under the raised gates as Yale's nerves shot off again, now with bits of anger.

"Gwen, I swear to the Goddess you better be in here." he mumbled under his breath as he entered Castle Canteus.


	2. Prisoner Release

The tall fighter followed cautiously behind the Gallian until reaching the rest of the group. When they did, Ranulf pushed forward to take the lead with Ike and guide them through the eerie darkness of the halls. The corridors were made even more vacant by their footsteps echoing off the stone walls, and by something else. Hoofs? How though, the woman in red had left her horse outside. Turning around, the fighter was met with the face of a large white Pegasus nearly scaring him half to death. He jumped back, earning a member of the group to shush him and a giggle from the pink haired knight holding the reins of the winged horse. How the hell did I not notice her before? Yale shook his head, cursing himself for not being more observant, or quiet. They had to try to be as silent as possible while passing several doors as they were lead down into the dungeon below since each door was bound to hold Daein troops.

They proceeded slowly until reaching an opening of a wide open space with stone steps leading out through an arched doorway. Judging by the putrid smell coming from the darkness, he guessed this was where they kept the prisoners, it was a mixture of unwashed bodies, sickness, feces and even death. It took his breath away in the worst way possible and, judging by the cringed noses, the others would agree with him. He quickly raised his hand to his nose in a failed attempt to block out the smell while taking a quick glance at the members of the beast tribe. He started to feel a bit of pity for them for the first time in his life. He had heard how their senses were more powerful than a Beorcs' and he could tell that it was true with that look on their face. Just as the smell was finally blocked out, the fighter's hand was roughly knocked away from his nose as something pushed past, hitting his elbow in the process. Yale glared at the tall man dressed in dark clothing strolling past towards Ranulf, Ike and the paladin.

"Hey! You there!" Ranulf called out, just loud enough to make sure he was heard by the newcomer but quiet enough to be unheard by any guards lurking in the dimly lit room next to theirs. The man, however, was unfazed by the beast's outburst and casually strolled right up to them. Yale stepped closer out of curiosity, trying to listen in on what the man had said to the beast without being too obvious. It didn't work. He soon heard someone clear their throat and looked to see a young woman holding a thunder tome against her chest; she cocked her head, indicating she knew what he was trying to do. He gave an apologetic none and pretended to step back, but stopped after she turned her head away, allowing him to step a little closer, stopping just behind her. He wasn't as close as he was before getting caught, but he could still hear their conversation a little better.

"Just who are you, anyway?" he heard the paladin ask.

"Call me Volke. Sir Greil hired me. I'm in... intelligence."

"My father hired you?"

"You are Sir Greil's son, correct?" Volke paused for a few second, "You'll do. Sir Greil hired me to investigate something. You pay my price, and I'll give you my report. Deal?"

There was a moment of silence until Ike finally spoke up. "How much?"

"Fifty thousand."

Yale's mouth dropped in shock. Fifty thousand! He wondered exactly how many farms or blacksmiths he and Gwen would both have to help out with just to earn a quarter of that. He was sure that if Gwen were to hear that amount, she would beg till her last breath for them to become an 'intelligence'. He would have to decline though, he knew that if Gwen were to get any sort of gold near that amount, she would gamble it away as soon as it hit her small callused palm. Guilt started to seep in again as he closed his eyes at the thought of the mage. If she wasn't there, or…no I can't think about that.

The fighter was gratefully snapped out of his thoughts as he felt something tugging on his shirt. Looking down, he saw the girl named Mist looking up at him with smiling eyes that made him blush slightly, remembering her earlier accusations.

"Are you going with them?" she questioned.

"With who?" wasn't he already here with them?

"My brother. Are you going with him to open up the cells, or are you staying here?" she explained. Who was her brother? He looked around and found that the only one that looked remotely like her was Ike, it wasn't by a lot, but they did have the same eyes.

"I'm not sure," he answered as the red haired paladin and Ranulf walked passed them both, the woman chucking an iron axe in his direction, since they had failed to return his, just before entering back into the corridor they had just past through. Yale turned his attention to Ike just as he slowly stepped up the stairs, cringing at the smell that had worsened the closer he got. Volke didn't seem fazed by the smell at all, he quickly darted passed the young commander and disappeared into the shadows.

Yale turned back to Mist and shrugged as Ike followed the man. "I'm going to guess not."

She let out a small pout, no doubt wanting him to find Gwen. Yale honestly didn't really know how to feel about not being the one to find her. He was anxious, but if he were to run out there now he would most likely end up being discovered by the Daeins. That would most likely lead to a fight with the commander just when he might get their trust. He could use that trust in a possible means of getting supplies from them when he left this place. Yale watched as the boy in dark robes and red eyes turn towards the group, telling them the plan in a hushed tone. They were to keep quiet, but alert for any signs of activity that would hint for an attack. They might be able to sneak past the guards and get the prisoners out, however, the possibility of getting caught was greater. They all nodded and took to positions given to them and prepared for any attacks. As the rest gathered towards their only known exit, Yale stood guard near the steps with Mist at his side, clutching a staff close to her chest as if it was a shield meant to protect her small frame. He would be against someone her age fighting in any sort of battle, the thought was hypocritical considering the age he was when he first killed someone; that, and both he and Gwen had taken on job that involved them fighting, though it was rare. Yale held back a smirk as he watched her sniff the air and made the most comical face he had seen in a long time, he could tell that both she and Gwen would get along. Which could be good for the mage, she was never really able to make friends with someone her age.

"What's her name?"

"...Gwen." he answered after a moment. Mist tilted her head to the side and pondered over the name.

"Just Gwen?" she asked.

"No, it's short for Gwendolyn."

"That's pretty." she stated with a smile in her voice. Why was she always so cheery?

"It is," he agreed, "but it doesn't' really suit her." to Yale, the name Gwendolyn just sounded so sweet and seemed suited for a shy, modest girl. None of those qualities are what he thought of when he pictured Gwen in his mind.

"Why is that?"

"You'll see." I hope.

He could tell she wanted to pry a bit more but was stopped as both jumped at the sound of bones cracking. He spun his head around as Mist mumbled under her breath for her to 'start getting used to that' while Yale watched the female Gallian transformed into a large orange cat with deadly claws. The beast roller its shoulders preparing for an attack while the pink Pegasus knight stationed herself to its left and a purple hair myrmidon to the right. Behind them stood the two young mages and an even younger archer, with tufts of light green hair that made Yale believe that he could have some relation to the brothers.

The young archer held a look on his face that Yale was all too familiar with. It was look of being scared mixed with confidence and excitement. The same look Gwen had whenever she was getting ready for one of the rare fights they would get themselves into. Yale shook his head to try and clear out any thoughts of Gwen. If he was to get out of this without the possibility of getting in anyone's way, he would have to try and focus only at the task at hand. It wasn't just Gwen that could be stuck in this hell hole, many others where now unknowingly relying on all of them for their freedom and, who knows, maybe this one good deed of selflessness in freeing someone he doesn't care about would allow the Goddess to, for once, answer his prayers. It's certainly something Gwen would think. What was it she would always say? No good deeds goes unnoticed? He hoped she was right about that, now more than ever.

For a while they could only hear the sound of occasional footsteps of marching around. It didn't sound like there was a lot, but he was still worried if whether they would get away without being seen. A hushed whisper soon echoed inside the dank dungeon, grabbing his attention as he leaned to peek out into the wide space that the two had entered mere minutes ago. Yale's hands tightened its hold on the borrowed axe as rushed footsteps started to quickly approach them. A dark shadow sped past the opening and, within seconds, was followed by a caped figure. He loosened his grip at the realization that it was only his comrades. Wait, where we a team? He thought about it for a moment, but the moment was short as he heard a large clatter of noise and the yelling of what had to be Daein soldiers.

"Crackers! They were found!" He turned to the Pegasus knight as she drew out her lance to prepare for battle that was to come, and it surely did.

Just as Ike called out from the darkness for them to fight an archer, Knight and two swordsmen came running through the corridor they had entered before, all having heard the commotion from one of the many rooms they had crept past. The first to charge was the archer as he quickly fired off an arrow that went straight at the Pegasus knight. The fighter watched as she tried to deflect it, but failed, to slow as her pegasus struggled to dart out of the archer's path, allowing the arrow to slice into her arm. She cried out in pain as a swordsman came running at her in full speed, barely missing as she quickly dodged his blade. Yale's feet reacted on their own, forcing him to dart towards the flying horse; his owner attempting to counterattack with a thrust from her lace, barely wounding the soldier, but that wasn't who she should be worried about. Yale sped up his pace as he watched the archer reload his arrow. He run past the dead knight that the Gallian had taken out, and took aim at the surprised archer with a swing that aimed directly towards his neck.

It was a miss. The archer ducked just in time, nearly throwing the fighter out of balance. Yale didn't let it deter him. Quickly, he tightened the hold of the weapon with both hands and swung up towards the Daein and hit him hard across his chest. Yale could hear the tearing of cloth and skin as the axe sliced open the archer's chest. The fatal gash caused the soldier to fall backward, landing hard onto the cold stone floor. Yale turned around to see the myrmidon cut deep into the swordsmen allowing him to take the opportunity of the Daein's distraction to charge. The axe was raised up high for Yale to bring down onto his neck, nearly hacking it off completely as the warm blood sprayed over his hands. The quickly fighter turned away from the bleeding corpse in time to see one of the mages take out the second swordsmen with a deadly wind spell that sliced up the man as he cried out in pain. The power of his spell utterly shocked him. Gwen had used that same spell countless of times, but never has he seen it look that powerful or cause that much damage. Hearing someone calling out for him to hurry up forced Yale turned around and watch the myrmidon as she ran out into the dungeon, where the rest had already followed.

As Yale rushed out into the dimly lit stone room, he watched as both Ike and Volke hurry out from the shadows, Ike holding his side to try and stop it from bleeding while Volke looked as calm as he did before, without a single scratch. Right behind them was the clattering sound of soldiers quickly approaching. He prepared himself for more, clenching the bloodied axe in his hand, but before the soldier came towards them, Yale heard the sound of metal hitting stone off to the side. Turning to his left, the fighter watched as a soldier began attacking a prisoner. Anger flared up inside as he of him at the thought of Gwen possibly being in a similar situation. He damned all the filthy Daeins that served that bastard of a king and trudged off in the cell with hopes of committing his good deed by embedding his axe into the bastard.

With a solid swing aimed at the distracted Daein, he hacked open a large gash, right on the guards unprotected shoulder. The Daein yelped in pain as the fighter pulled the axe from his flesh. With blood flowing down his arm, the guard quickly swung around for a counter attack, thrusting his spear in Yale's direction. Its blade sliced a light cut along Yale' side, but he ignored the sharp sting and forced the guard against the wall using the handle of his axe to press against his throat. The fighter kept pressing down until the sound if bones snapping settled the guard's struggling. The fighter pushed himself off of the guard and threw his axe down, hard, cutting through the onyx helmet and into his skull, embedding the edge deep into his brain, assuring his death. Satisfied with his work, Yale placed his boot on the corpse's chest as he yanked the axe from his head, allowing him to freely step away from the puddle of blood slowly forming on the stone floor. The fighter turned and faced the victim, though it didn't even looked like he was wounded, and nodded towards the exit.

"Come on, I'll help you out of here." As his words ended, a blast of thunder spell rang out just outside of the cell, causing the fighter to jump at the loud blast.

"I'll be fine, go help your friends." the prisoner stated; Yale looked at him as he hesitantly began to step back. The prisoner nodded again for him to go and indicating that he was fine. Yale nodded back and quickly turned around to rejoin the fight. When he did, he nearly tripped over the dead bodies that laid along the bloodied stone floor. The fighter looked forward and watched as Ike landed a deadly blow on a heavily armed knight; it hit hard, but not hard enough. Gripping his axe, the brunette charged after the knight, striking his back and cutting in deep where his armor didn't touch as Ike plunged his blade into another opening. The black armor shuddered as the body inside jerking at the impact before finally clattering onto the floor as Ike pulled his sword from his stomach. The commander nodded thanks before darting out into the dungeon, calling out for them to move forward as he separated himself from the group with Volke following close behind him. Yale guessed that they were going to find other prisoners and the temptation to follow them surfaced again, but pushed it down to follow the others instead. They run up towards narrow stone stairs and he could hear commotions coming from the room right above, he had a feeling that this fight was merely halfway done. He was right, as soon as the Gallian reached the steps, a guard came rushing out only to be meet by a javelin courtesy of the pink knight. It struck his arm, deterring his movements which allowed the young archer to shoot two arrows that brought him to his knees until the Myrmidon finished him off with a deadly blow to the neck.

Yale heard more soldiers behind the fallen Daein and ran up the steps to meet face to face with a lanced soldier. He quickly took his axe and tried to take him out in one hit to the head, but the Daein troop ducked to set his spear in Yale's already bleeding side. The pain went from a sting to burning as the metal pierced through the skin. With a swift motion, the troop twisted the weapon before he ripped out the tip, leaving blood to splatter onto the floor. It was agonizing; but with adrenalin pumping through his veins, he was still able to set up one last swing and cut deep into his opponent's chest, sending him tumbling back. The troop tried to recover by applying vulnerary quickly into the bleeding gash but a javelin flying through the air implanting into the belly of the soldier. The Daein made a small cry as he held the staff of the now blood soaked weapon, standing in shock until he was pushed aside by his fellow soldiers.

Yale was also pushed by someone passing by before shoving him back, forcing him to slam hard onto the wall of the stairs. His side burned with pain as he pressed his hand against it, attempting to stop the bleeding while his other barely clung onto his axe. As he closed his eyes, a cooling sensation spread on his wound, leading into a glowing like warmth that quickly followed; until, finally, the pain was nearly nonexistent. He looked down at Mist and gave a quick thank you before following Ike, who now darted passed to help finish finding all the prisoners. Shoving himself off the wall, he pushed himself up the stars and rushed back into battle, stationing next to the pegasus knight just before the Gallian beast, who charged passed them, dove into battle with the heavily armed knight, tearing threw him in second. Yale was beginning to think, that if they had only sent her, she would have done this in half the time they were. The myrmidon and male mage set out to finish off the other knight without even being touched by his javelin. The wind, however, was so powerful in such a small space that it deterred the Pegasus knight's flight. She wavered, but still made her mark on the last soldier that stood in their way, she may have taken damage but she didn't show it as she set her steed to fly back for a safer distance. Yale took a step forward to back her up when he heard the clatter of more footmen from nearby. Yale quickly turned to see where to noise was coming from and saw a small doorway leading into a well-lit room. The fighter quickly made a beeline to the door in an attempt to try and cut them off from a side attack. It wasn't the best idea.

As soon as his foot passed the doorway a man came running towards him, his sword aimed at his neck, Yale was lucky enough to see the attack in time and moved to have the blade grazed his armor set on his shoulder. The fighter made an attempt at a counter attack, but the myrmidon was quicker. He sidestepped the hit while landing one of his own, this time meeting the flesh of Yale's arm. It hurt, but he brushed it off for now and went for another swing at the myrmidon. He was able to land a decent blow; the Daein staggered clutching his arm where the blade of the axe had sliced it open, exposing white meat beneath the bloody tissue. The swordsmen went for another attack and Yale was set on dodging the blow, but the loud crack of lightning striking just behind him threw off his concentration. It was evident that the man he faced was to the noise of louder magic as he remained undeterred by the deafening blast. He took the opportunity and left a nasty cut in the fighter's left hip. Yale might have been hit again if it wasn't for arrow lodging into the neck of the foot soldier, causing him to double over in his pool of blood, making a gurgling noise as he died.

The fighter had no time to recuperate from the attack as another myrmidon ran towards him. Yale set up for a block, but the attacker changed his stance last second and hit his wrist, it didn't touch his skin due to the thick cloth around his arms, but it stung. Yale's counter attack landed a good hit the myrmidon's shoulder as two arrows flying past him hit him hard in the chest. This was familiar to Yale; he always liked having someone backing him up. Taking his axe with both hands, he hit the soldier hard in the neck, swinging it around till the soldier's head slammed into the wall next to the entrance, snapping the head nearly off of his shoulders. The bloodied fighter soon felt the same sensation on his wounds as before, letting him know that Mist was behind him now. He was more than grateful for this, in the back of the room stood a deadly looking man, dressed in heavy black Daein armor. The General's steps seemed to shake the room as he marched towards him with a sinister smile painted on his face. It was as if he enjoyed watching his soldiers fall victim.

"Look whose come to play! I am so very happy to see you." the General smiled at Yale with a look that made his blood run cold with an almost child like fear. "Now then, are you ready to become my prisoners and live a life of eternal bliss within my lovely dungeon?" the man asked as he drew a sharp blade from its sheath.

He didn't have a comeback, he just tried to tightened his bloodied grip and waited for the attack to come. After a few seconds, the General thrust out with a speed he didn't expect from someone in such heavy armor. Yale tried to dodge the attack by jumping back, only to have his back meet by the stone wall allowing the tip of the blade punctured him in the stomach. The General withdrew the sword to thrust again but was stalled as Yale counter attack with a heavy swing, trying to ignore the sharp pain in his gut and the warmth of his blood soaking into his shirt. The man didn't even bother to move out of the way, and whatever damage he did to the larger man either didn't show or it had no effect on his armor. Yale tried swinging his axe again, aiming for the opening of the armor in his arm, but was deflected by the man's sword nearly flinging Yale's weapon out of his hand. Tightening his grip, Yale was able to keep hold of his weapon, much to the Daein's surprise and delight. The fighter kept the Generals blade trapped between the bottom of the shaking axe and its handle. Gritting his teeth, the fighter pushed back hard on the general's blade; the cracking noise of their blades against one another rang out into the air, both their weapons were starting to crack under the presser of Yale pushing back. The larger man start to slowly skid across the floor, and his confidence rose as the fighter saw the Daein's expression began to falter; however, Yale's cockiness disappeared when he took a step forward and nearly retched in agony. The wound was far deeper than he thought and as he pushing back hard against the taller man it caused his body to strain and tear the tissue from where he had nearly been run through, ripped open the sickening wound even wider.

Yale could hear the man chuckle over the noise of him panting in pain as his blood dripping onto the floor. "You're going to die here." the general stated with delight in his voice, Yale shook his head at the comment; he knew he couldn't afford to die, not now. Behind him he could hear the crackling of lighting in the small space around him, giving him an idea that he hoped the mage would understand. Holding his breath, the fighter pushed back on the General with the last of his strength, forcing his blade into the air. The fighter then quickly pulled away as a bolt of lightning connected to the tip of the blade, sending the man to spasm as the blast raked across his body. Yale fell back, no longer having the strength to stand as he held his bleeding stomach and watched the General tried to regain his former composer, only to be pushed back by a sharp gust of wind that sliced deep cracks in his black armor. He could hear the pink knight calling out for him to move just as the General was prepared to launch another attack. Painfully, Yale moved out of the way, allowing Ike to step in and block the deadly blow with his own sword. He watched as the two mages and the commander attack the Daein until he finally collapses onto the floor in a growing puddle of blood, lighting still dancing across his scared armor. Relieved, he pushed himself into a sitting position as the sensation of healing began to emit from the small girl crouched down next to him. When she was finished, a bloody hand came into view, extended towards him with a smiling green eyed myrmidon attached to it.

"First time in a battle like this?" she asked before taking his hand, not patient enough to wait from him, and hoisted him up.

"Sort of. I'm used to bandits, not trained soldiers." his statement made the girl laugh, for whatever reason, as she smacked his back.

"You better get used to if you're going to stick around." Stick around? Did they really just let people in like this? It didn't really matter. If Gwen wasn't here then his search wasn't over, so why would he join them? He wanted to tell her the likeness of him sticking around wasn't even in existence at the moment, but was cut off by Ike yelling for the remaining group to finish scavenging the chest and leave.

"What about the prisoners?" Yale asked, a small hint of panic in his voice as he clenched onto his still sore gut.

"They're already outside." Volke answers as he threw a bag of stolen goods over his shoulder just before disappearing into the shadowed corridor. Yale hesitated a bit before following the 'intelligents', wondering what he would find when he walked out of this prison.

⦗⥺⦘

When they reached the gate, it didn't take long for him to notice a few dead Daein soldiers scattered on the blood stained gravel road, indicating that the brother had finally gotten his fight. He grimmest as his hand raised up, attempting to block out the sunlight, trying to get his eyes to adjust to the newly found brightness, a little shocked at how fast he grew used to the dark and the smell of the place. Squinting, he searched over the prisoners for Gwen but with no luck as his heart sank. She wasn't here, she may have never been here. A lump formed in his throat as his fist shook. Why did he get his hopes up, he should have figured the outcome. The goddess has never answered any of his prayers before, why should this be any different? Slowly, he scanned the surrounding area until his eyes landed on the wagon causing his heart to shatter as he saw her cloak folded up neatly, waiting for the owner that would never come. The fighter stood still for a few seconds before slowly starting towards the cloak only to be stopped by his breath being taken away from something hard crashing into his back, sending him tumbling to the ground.

Rolling over, he shielded his eyes from the sun to trying to get a good look at whom or what ran into him. When he did, he let out a shudder laugh. She was a mess, her clothes torn and baggy while being covered in dirt, sweat and dried patches of blood. Even her face looked distressed and thinner, equally smeared with dirt and blood from her cracked lips and bloodied nose. The young girl glared down at him with one good eye with the other squinted shut from a black eye sitting just below a nasty cut over her eyebrow. Despite how appalling she looked, Yale began to chuckle from relief, she was there, she was alive. His smile never broke from his face, not even after she started to yell at him while crashing down her foot onto his defenseless body.

"You bastard! Do you realize how long I waited in there?!" Gwen yelled, smashing her foot down harder but he still didn't care, it may have hurt when she hit the spots he was previously injured, but it didn't matter, he was just enjoyed the fact that she was really there. Though, he had a feeling he should stop her now before she hurt herself. As her foot came down again, Yale shot out his hand and caught her ankle, stopping her movements. She hopped around for a few seconds, trying to keep steady on one leg but failed. Her arms starting to move in circles to try and keep her balance before she finally fell back with an 'oomph' sound.

He quickly stood up as she yelled. "What hell was that for?!" but he never answered her. The fighter just reached down and grabbed her small wrist, hoisting her up as she asked if he was listening to a word she was saying. When her feet were steady onto the ground he calmly wrapped his arms around the yelling girl, slouching down so that he could holding her closer. She quickly started to squirm in his embrace, trying to pry him off but he only held tighter.

She didn't give into his embrace, not yet. Gwen continued to struggle to get free by slamming her fist hard into his sides, aiming for where his cloths were bloody and slashed open. He ignored the pain that began to radiate with each punch and held on even tighter. After a short while her fist began to slow down until they stayed in their place at his side. Clinging to the rough brown fabric, she started to bury her face into his chest until he could feel the heat of her breath sink through to his skin. As she hugged him back, Yale felt nearly all of the weight he had been carrying on his shoulders lift away, what remained was from the feeling of her ribs beneath his hand. Why was she worst than the others?

"I thought you weren't coming." her voice was muffled by his shirt but he could still hear every word and it made his chest twisted with guilt.

"Of course I was." he replayed, smoothing her course hair down as she buried her face further into his shirt. His hand moved down again, allowing the fighter to hold her even tighter as she wrapped her arms around him.

"I'm sorry it took so long." he whispered to her, only to be replied with silence. After a few seconds he started to slowly pull her away from, keeping his hands on her shoulders.

"I'm so sorry Gwen." still, she avoided his gaze as she continued to looked at their feet causing Yale to frowned as he shook her shoulders, getting her to finally look up at him. Her eyes were red, but dry of any tears. Yale took his hand and gently whipped away the all amount of blood from the bleeding cut above her eye, its scab now completely rubbed away. Looking back down at her he spoke with reassurance in his voice. His hand now cupping her cheek, the callused thumb rubbing circled gently on her cheek bone.

"I won't let anything like that ever happen to you again, I swear."

After a few quick seconds a small smirk appeared on her face as she looked up into his eyes, "Cross your heart?"

The fighter smiled as he stood up straight; he raised his right hand while taking his left pointer finger marking an invisible X across the general area of his heart.

"Cross my heart."

"Okay, good." she smiled at him before shaking her head. "You know, you're sucking at your job as a brother lately." she stated jokingly.

"Brother!?" both whipped their heads around in unison and watched as Mist stood there, her fist clenched together at her chest. The girl had most likely been standing there watching the whole scene played out, and Yale blushed as he realized how she must have taken it as lovers reuniting again. He couldn't blame her though for not thinking they were siblings; both didn't even look like they could be cousins, thanks to how Gwen was born. No matter what family she would have been born into, Gwen wouldn't have looked related to them. Her body held no color, hair was wavy and white, though sometimes it did seem to hold a dull wheat color, and her skin was always pale with only her fingertips holding a pink tint when she was cold. She was also short compared to him, very short, while Yale was tall, muscular, had brown hair and was tan due to all the labor he had done outside nearly every day of his life. The only thing that they had in common where blue eyes; though, hers were far lighter than his. So, Yale couldn't blame her, but that didn't make her assumption any less embarrassing.

"See, Mist, this is what you get for assuming." Ike stated as he walked up beside his sister, an amused look painted on his face.

Gwen cocked her head, "What'd she assume?" she turned to the taller man who rubbed his hand over his face, hoping it could erase the embarrassed blush that was slowly engulfing it.

"It's nothing Gwen, don't worry about it." he replied looking away as she began to scratch her head in either confusion, or the fact that it was filthy; or it could be lice, Goddess he hoped it wasn't that again.

"We need to know where you two stand in this." Yale gave the dark robed mage standing next to Ike a confused look. When did he get there?

"Stand in what, the war?" When the mage nodded, Yale gave him an honest answer.

"It's simple; we want nothing to do with it. All we want is to get out of Crimea." Yale then nodded his head at Gwen; "She was actually taken while we were trying to get a boat for Begnion." the fighter noticed Gwen's distorting face when she heard that last part, "...But since that didn't work, we might have to try something else. Hell, I've even contemplated going to Daein; they wouldn't expect refugees to go to their country, right?" As much as he hated the fact of being in a country fill of the soldiers he hated, it could actually be safer.

Ike looked a little shocked by that. "You really think that would work?"

Yale shrugged. "It's not too hard to act like a Daein, just keep ranting and raving about 'half breeds' and you're in. They can be really simple minded thanks to their king."

"Hey!" Gwen yelled out in annoyance at the simple minded part, he just rolled his eyes and the short girl.

"I said can. You know I don't mean us."

"You're from Daein?" The mage asked narrowing his red eyes at her. Oh shit.

"Yea, we are. What about it?" Gwen asked crossing her arms and trying to narrow her eyes right back at the man. She was doing a decent job at acting threatening, considering she was shorter than him and covered in Goddess knows what.

Sensing the danger this could cause, Yale quickly pulled the girl back away from the other mage. "Not anymore; we came to Crimea to get away from that place. We are in no way supporting Daein in this war."

"You said you were trying to get to Begnion?" Ike asked to head away from any bickering.

"Yes."

"We're heading out on ship to leave for Begnion and we could use your help for the journey there. It's your choice if you stick around, but if you decide to help us fight this war, we'd appreciate it." Yale looked at the commander then at Gwen, giving her a look that asked her 'what do you think?' She stayed silent for a moment until a smile spread across her face. The smile beamed up at him before turning her attention to the blue haired swordsman.

"I'm in; actually, I was hoping I could join you." she piped up leaving Yale to stand there in shock. When they had learned about the invasion, both equally wanted to get away from the Daeins and avoid any fighting. She didn't even argue with him when he wanted to leave the country. Since her capture, Yale had assumed that she would want to get as far as humanly possible from the war; he had never expected her to want to fight.

"I'd figured that you wanted to stay away from them, especially since you were-"

"But that's why I wanna fight them now," she interrupted, "as payback for being such asses to me in there." she smirked at Ike "So, like I said before, I'm in for a little bit of revenge."

Yale looked down at her with worry in his eyes. Did she not know how bad her condition was right now? There was no possible way she had enough strength to keep up with everyone. Just the thought of her possibly fighting with how she was in didn't sit well with him in the slightest, especially considering the fact she little to no experience fighting bandits let alone soldiers. Yale had more experience than her and still struggled with fighting that many, he knew that if Mist or the others weren't around he would be dead by now. He wanted to tell her no, but the pleading look she was giving him made it difficult and he did owe them for their help. If it had to come down to them going with Ike, Yale would make sure she didn't fight; only his life would be risked.

"I'm still not for fighting this war, but we'll go with you to Begnion as thanks for helping me get her back." Yale replied as he felt Gwen nudge his side in embarrassment.

"Good, glad to have you with us." Ike said with a small smile.

"I suggest that we leave the area now before any other Daeins come by." the mage stated simply, earning an agreed nod from Ike before they both turned around to walk towards one of the carts that was already being loaded up with their weapons, and now, the newly released prisoners.

Gwen quickly started towards the wagon but was topped by Yale's hand placed firmly on her shoulder.

"Are you sure about this?"

The teenager chuckled and turned to show her face, which held a hint of mischief. "Since when have I ever really been sure about anything?"

His face didn't break its worried expression at her joking; if anything, it made it worse. "Do you realize how un-assuring that sounds?"

"Yep!" she flashed a smile at him, completely ignoring his worried look, as she usually did; however, this smile wasn't the same as before. The fighter noticed that something about her smile was off, but he pushed back that worry, hoping that it was just her being tired or hungry.

As they reached the wagon he smiled at her belongings, knowing that she would be happy to see them again. After a bit of loud, and slightly immature, bickering, Gwen finally let the fighter lift her up onto the wagon, she probably could have done it any other time but her time they're had definitely weakened her. When she was in place, he reached over and grabbed both her worn brown satchel and cloak to place on her small lap. Her face instantly lit up at the sight of her belongings.

"Hey, you found them!" she held up the cloak and quickly spun it around her to fasten the belt around the hood. When he noticed her struggle with the loops on the fabric, Yale gave in to her annoyance and reached out and helped her to lace it threw as she searched through her satchels. As she searched, an annoyed look spread across her face.

"Where's my tome?"

"They took it, remember? All that was left was this."

"They took that old thing? Weird…wait…where's my book?" she asked, turning away from the fighter to locate his own bag. "Don't tell me they took my book, too!" she asked looking up from his bag, an annoyed look on her face.

"Yep."

"Why the hell did they take that? I mean the tome kind of makes sense, even though it was pretty used up, but the book? I just don't get it."

"Couldn't tell you." he stated, taking back his bag to take out the dagger they had taken earlier, placing it back into his boot. "They might have thought it was a tome or something like that."

"Well, they suck." she concluded, "I was so close to finding out who the lost heir was." she pouted before he pulled her hood up to cover her face making her laugh. He watched with a small smile as she struggled to belt the satchel on her hip while blind. She was finally able to fasten the belt as the wagon jerked beneath her, pulling them away from the former prison. Gwen pulled her hood down to start talking again but was soon distracted by the stale bread handed to her. It was funny to watch her become entranced with the food, but if they did starve her like he thought they did then she had a right to see it as gold. Quickly, she snatched it out of Mist's hand, who just giggled at her as she watched Gwen scarf it down, nearly swallowing it whole as Mist passed out more to the other freed prisoners.

He started to walk along with the wagon, strapping his old axe to his back as he continued to watch Mist starting to talk to Gwen while she stuffed her face with another piece of bread, replying with food still in her mouth. Two months ago he would have gotten on her case about it, but not today. After the hell she must have went through while being kept in that place, she deserved to eat the way she wanted; so he let it go, for now, but maybe not tomorrow. Instead of worrying about her table manners, he began too worried about the way she was acting; something was definitely off about her and it wasn't exhaustion or hunger. Gwen may be smiling and laughing, getting along well with the new group they were traveling with, as she normally did; but something was different about her smile. Yale could tell she was forcing it and she seemed to keep looking at him with a worried look, as if she believed he would disappear at any second. Somehow though, there was another look behind her eyes, beyond panic, it was as if his fear had come to life. Something in her did die, and he had a bad feeling that she wouldn't tell him anytime soon, that she would let it buried itself deep inside to the point where he could never help remove it.


	3. Promise

He took the stained piece of cloth in hand and rinsed it off in the clear cool river that held a soaked mage resting belly deep in icy waters, shivering, with a scowl on her face. Yale had to apologize nearly every time he ran the damp cloth over her sore black eye. It had to be cleaned though, the cut on her eyebrow was already hot to the touch with infection; and was deep enough that he wouldn't be surprised if it would leave a scar. Yale knew that if he had let Gwen do it, she would only splash water on her face and leave whatever dirt remain to stay until she got caught in the rain; or, most likely, until Yale became fed up with the smell and toss the teenager into any source of water he could find. Since Yale didn't want her to be pissed at him, and he didn't want Gwen to smell like a dungeon, he was stuck with slightly irritating her by patting the cut. After it was done he could then move onto the old wound on her ribs. She had received it from a javelin being thrown at her while she had ran away from Daein soldiers. She was lucky, the fighter was sure that they had missed their mark and had meant to kill her; Yale didn't understand why they decided to let her live, but he was thankful for it.

The gash was questionable and, despite her receiving it nearly two months ago, it didn't look completely healed and was starting to fester. Gwen had mentioned that it kept ripping open every time it almost healed, with only her aqua sash acting as a bandage to keep it from bleeding. Gwen flinched again as he placed the cloth over her lips, wiping away the dried blood from her nose and lips. She quickly cursed as a shiver ran through her body; causing the cut lips to hit Yale's hand, splitting them back open again. 

"If you stop jerking around it wouldn't hurt so much." he mumbled as he rinsed out the blood in the river, ignoring the partially drenched mage's glare, her tongue darting out to wipe away the fresh blood on her lips.

"I can't help it." she whined through chattering teeth. Another shiver took over as Yale waited patiently for her fit to finish up. When it did, he lifted up her chin to see her face again as she tried to keep her jaw still. "Why the hell can't we just use a staff?" she grumbled with her cracked bottom lip stick out for Yale to finish washing up.

"I don't want them to have to waste it on something as small as this." now that he thought about it, the myrmidon named Mia gave him some vulnerary to use on Gwen's sores, so that could be used for it if needed, "Besides, you still need wash up."

Gwen frowned, "Ya' know, I can clean myself." Yale let out a chortle at that comment.

"Sure."

"I can too. What do I look like a, toddler?"

"No," he replied as he started to scrub her cheeks, removing the black dirt all while trying his best to avoid the bruised eye, "but the wound on your ribs is questionable, and Rhys even mentioned that it tear open even wider; so, knowing you're luck, you would just end up getting hurt if you tried to wash yourself. Speaking of which..."

Slowly, Yale lifted her arm to showcase wounded side. It was difficult for him to focus with her prominent ribs and the countless bruises littering the pale flesh constantly pulling his attention away. When he was able to look at the gash he couldn't help but notice how red and crusted it looked, covered in old blood and dried pus. It looked as if she had picked at it after it tried to heal, possibly trying to drain the yellow fluid forming in the wound. He couldn't tell if it was good that she did that or bad. He reached out a hand and gently placed it around the bruised skin, causing her to flinch away from his touch as Yale's heart began to race with panic. It was more than just hot with infection, if she had stayed in there one day later a fever would have settled in, she could have died.

 The fighter had to avert his eyes away from the wound, to keep his anxiety down, to remind himself that they had a healer just a minutes' walk from them. If the infection was as bad as he feared, he wouldn't have to worry about looking for random jobs to do to pay for medicine, not again. Taking a few deep breaths, he repeated the reassuring thoughts in his mind. They had medicine, they had food and, more importantly, they were willing to give it to them. She'll be fine, she's alive. Yale looked back down at the ribs showing through and shook his head. Goddess, he hoped he was right. 

"How did you keep that wound open for so long." Yale asked as he gentility started to wipe away the crust. He needed to start talking or he would end up having a panic attack.

"Ow!" Gwen quickly jumped away from Yale's hand, if it wasn't for his hold on her arm she would have ran off. After she settled down, Yale rung out the rag over the wound, allowing the cool water to run over the burning skin, calming down whatever pain he caused.

"I already told you, and it's not like I wanted it to stay open. I tried to keep it closed and clean." she flinched again as he pressed the cloth against the cut. "I almost kept it closed till a week ago, it ripped open again and that's when it started to get really bad."

"So this infection is new?"

"I guess, yea."

He let out a sigh of relief, "That's good, means that it shouldn't be too severe...move your arm up a bit more."

"I can't be that bad if I was able to kick your ass." Gwen said with smugness in her voice, the smugness left however, when Yale pressed down a little too hard, getting the last of the dark brown crust off her skin. 

"You probably had a lot of adrenaline." he concluded while ringing out the cloth. "There, now dunk under the water to wash off the oil in your hair. I'll go get your cloths; they should be dried out now." Yale instructed while he stood up to start collecting the bath oils into a wicker basket that they had borrowed from Mist. He was starting to feel the need to keep an inner list of things he owned them back. This was one thing he didn't like about getting charity from people, he always felt obliged to do something in return.

 His body flinched at the sudden chilled of water splashing him, causing a cold shiver to run over him as Gwen apologized. The fighter only sighed and shrugged off the annoyance as he shook off the water from his arm.

 "I'll leave this here for you to dry off with." he called, tossing a folded cloth near the edge of the streams. "I'll be right back."

 "'Kay...hey, wait!" Yale stopped dead in his tracks, hesitating for a few seconds before slowly turned around to face the teenage girl, readying himself to turn right back around if she wasn't completely submerged. The girl was never one to be embarrassed easily and, in his opinion, was way too open about several things and he had enough of seeing her in that state. She was covered though, her body complete sunken into the water, slowly floated away from the water's edge.

 "What is it?"

 There was a long pause, her eyes wide as she opened her mouth, but then closed it as she slowly submerged the rest of her shoulders; her pale eyes darting down at the water reflecting the sunset. She mumbled to him, causing the water touching her lips to splash.

 "I can't hear you."

 "I said it's nothing'! Just...never mind." She grumbled.

 Yale still didn't move. He stood there, waiting for the mage to talk again; but she never did. The girl only fully submerged herself and scrubbing her fingers threw her hair. Yale now knew, at that point, she wasn't about to say anything anytime soon.

 The fighter rubbed the back of his neck as he walked away from the stream holding the silent girl.

"Damn it."

 ⦗⥺⦘ 

"Where's Gwendolyn?" Rhys asked as Yale approached the small camp set up in the forest. After breaking out the prisoners they had made a beeline towards one of Crimea's most famous port, Toha. Though they had made a large headway, the small band of fighters were still a good day and a half's worth of walking from their destination.

"She's just finishing up." He replied to the priest while holding up the basket. "Do you know where I can find Mist? I want to give this back."

Rhys nodded with a small smiled as he took the basket out of the fighter's hand. "She's helping Oscar with dinner right now, but I can take it off your hands." 

Yale thanked the priest and turned towards where his shirt and Gwen's cloths now rested, all alone over the fire. The clothes where hanging with the other released prisoners; but they decided to take a bath earlier, Nephenee separate from the others of course, as Gwen volunteered to go last, giving her the opportunity to stuff more bread down her throat all while he cleaned off the his armor. When it was their turn, the cleric offered to clean his shirt, but he turned her down, stating that the others were in more need of cleaning then his. Mist insisted, argued really, that it would look bad if he walked into the port covered in blood, which made a great point. So he gave into her wishes, allowing her to clean and even stitch up both his and Gwen's clothing as they washed up. He was regretting that a bit, the shirt was still freezing and damp, sticking to his skin as he pulled it over his head, leaving the first few clasp loose on his neck too keep the fabric from clinging to his neck. Gwen's where just as wet, but he figured that they would dry off if they sat next to the fire long enough. At least he hoped so; she was in no condition to get sick.

Yale's thoughts froze after he picked up the dark blue undershirt, his thumb running over the stitching of where her side would be. How close was I to losing her? He didn't want to think about it, but the fear kept crawling up his spine. The fighter had to keep reminding himself that this was real, that he really was holding her cloths and that he had definitely just saw her. It was not just another dream turned nightmare, so there was no need for him to dart off to the river and make sure it was real. Did she feel the same? That could be why she sounded so panicky for a second. What if leaving her alone wasn't a good idea right now? Was her mind unstable? His hands tightened round the rough fabric as thoughts of what could have happened in there flooded his mind. Yale wasn't stupid, despite her saying she was fine, something did happen and it had changed her. The mage was putting up a front for him, he could tell and it was going to do more harm than good. She always held things in and it always ended up backfiring on her, nearly always causing a breakdown.

He reached behind his neck and rubbed hard, causing the skin to turn red while his frustration rose. Why did it have to turn out like this?

"Are you alright?" Yale snapped out of his trance at the sound of Rhys' voice. Hastily, he began to fold the rest of her clothes over his arm.

"I'm fine…"

"Are you sure?" Rhys egged on, attempting to get the fighter to talk. 

He let out a sigh as he rubbed his neck again; his eyes going over the healer's calm face. He can trust him, right? If possible, maybe Rhys could help figure out how to get Gwen to talk. Though he hardly knew this crew, they had helped him free Gwen, the least he could do is trust them like they did him.

"I'm not sure about Gwen." he confessed.

"Do you mean her cuts?" Yale shook his head as a response.

"Her cuts will be fine, what I mean is she's not acting right." he looked back down at her clothes rubbing his coarse thumb over the stitches.

"The others are reacting how someone would after going through that, but she's acting like...like, hell, I don't even know." he gave a worn sigh "She didn't even cry, even thought I could tell she wanted to."

Rhys nodded, taking in what the fighter was trying to say. "What she went through was a traumatic experience, everyone handles it differently."

Yale sighed "I know, it's just..." he paused rubbing the back of his neck raw. "I'm just worried that if she doesn't talk about it, she'll just, I don't know...break."

"I'm sure with you by her side now she'll be just fine, and after I take a look at her cuts she'll be even better."

Yale held in a groan, wanting to tell the priest that what he was saying wasn't helping. Even being by her side won't stop her from breaking down. Yale still nodded a thanks to the man, he did try to help him after all, before walking away.

⦗⥺⦘

When he got back to the stream, he sighed in relief: it wasn't a dream. She was still there, sitting at the waters edges and shivering with only the thin cloth wrapped around her for protection.

"What took you!" she yelled, hopping up quickly to take her cloths away from him. "I'm freezing!"

"Sorry, I got caught up." he answered while turning round, giving her some privacy as she changed.

"Gwen, is there anything you need to talk to me about?" Yale asked a few seconds after the sound of rustling clothes stopped.

"Yea," she replied "what's for dinner? I'm starved!"

Yale frowned, but he should have figured she would say something like that. Sighing, he re-asked his question but with a bit more celerity.

"I mean, about what happened in the prison."

There was a long pause after he asked, the noise of the lazy stream running past being the only thing filling up the silence. It took a while, but Yale remained patient as he stood there with his arms crossed.

"Yale?"

"Yes?"

"Can you help me dry my hair? My side is really starting to hurt."

"Are you serious?" he turned to face her with irritation radiating off his face. Gwen didn't seem to cared at all about his mood as she stood there, her hair plastered to her forehead, cheeks, shoulders and arms. Small droplets were starting to running down her face and neck allowing the collar of her tunic to absorb the cold water.

Yale continued to glare at her as he walked over, motioning with his hand for her to turn around as he snatched up the already wet cloth. As soon as it touched his hands he slapped in on top of her head and started to rub her hair. He might have rubbed a little too hard out of frustration, and he knew she would end up with some tangles, but his frustration was getting the best of him.

"Ow!" She flipped her head around with an over exaggerated frown, flinging water onto his face in the presses. Her frown faded when she saw the look on his face. Quickly spinning back around, she glanced down as Yale finished drying her hair.

"There's nothing to talk about."

"Then how did you get all those bruises and cuts?" Yale asked while starting to braid the tangled stands. When she didn't answer he tied off the hair and forced her to turn around until she faced him, both of his hands on her small shoulders.

 "What's wrong?" he asked in all seriousness.

 She just rolled her eyes, "You're what's wrong!" she yelled while throwing up her arms to move him away from her. Gwen winced slightly from her sore side but she tried not to let it show, which didn't work, not with Yale.

 "Dear Goddess, I'm fine! Sure I'm a little beat up and they barely fed me, but I'll live!" she lowered her arms and forced a smile at him, in an attempt to reassure him, again, it didn't work.

 "Then why do you want to fight, you used to be with me on the idea of avoiding this war."

 She stopped smiling up at him, the sun setting beside them casting long shadows on the ground and her face making her strangely older then she really was.

"I just want to get back at them; and besides, it will just follow us. Our luck is that amazing you know."

 "I don't want you fighting." he stated, standing up straight to try and seem more authoritative to her.

 The act only lead her to roll her eyes again. "I don't care, I wanna fight. Besides, you let me fight before."

 "You're not fighting any soldiers. They are way more trained than what you're used to."

 "Yes I am!" She yelled stomping her food onto the ground to try and strengthen her argument. "And, if I'm not mistaken, I heard that you had fought them too before meeting up with the mercenaries, so you have no right to say we can't stand up against them." she stated while pointing an accusing finger at him.

Yale took a deep breath to try and calm down; and to keep from admitting that she was right on that fact. He just really didn't need to get her mad at him the same day he had finally found her.

"How about this, we'll go with them to Begnion, but when we get there we leave." He stated, ripping off a ribbon from the cloth, handing it to the frustrated mage.

"No way." She snapped, yanking the cloth from his hands before lifting up her shirt, only to struggle with the makeshift bandage. 

"Yes."

"No, I want to help them out!"

 Yale shook his head as he reached out to help tie the cloth.

"We'll stay in Begnion with them," he began, walking passed her, folding up the remaining drenched cloth. "and help them out when needed; but when they start to head out to another country, we're staying. All right?" she looked down at her feet to either think or pout. Sighing for the hundredth time that day, he walked up to the small girl placing his hand on her shoulder. 

"I just want to keep you safe." 

"I know." Gwen replayed in a small voice.

"Then don't fight my decisions, you're lucky I'm compromising."

"Yea, whatever." Gwen mumbled as she glanced up at him with a defeated smile. "Can we get some food now?"

"Okay, but you're not getting any of the stew.

The smile quickly vanished. "What! Why not?"

"You just said they were starving you; if you eat anymore you'll get yourself sick, just like last time."

"I was a kid then!"

"Doesn't matter; you're not eating any stew: you can have one more piece of bread but nothing after that."

"That's so unfair!"

"Be happy I'm letting you have bread now let's go, Rhys still needs to look at your side." Yale didn't wait for her to reply, he kept a hold of her shoulder to shuffling her over towards the camp as she grumbled under her breath.

So much for not pissing her off.

⦗⥺⦘

"It's impolite to stare."

"Bite me."

Yale frowned as he took stew soaked bread into his mouth all while Boyd, who had sat with them, busted out in laughter.

"Why don't you just give her some more food?" he asked after his laughter calmed down.

"Because, she'll just make herself sick." Yale replied after finishing the last of his bread by popping in into his mouth. He did feel bad. It wasn't like he enjoyed this, and the food was really good; but there will be other meals and he'll start letting her have a bigger helpings tomorrow. But, for now, it was just the piece of bread that was already long gone.

"But they ate!" Gwen called out, point at the three other released prisoners who were sitting at one of the four fires laid out in the middle of their tents. Kieran didn't stop eating, too busy arguing in-between bites with the cook, Oscar, about some ridiculous bet they had wagered years ago; however, Nephenee and Brom both paused and looked down at their food in guilt.

"That's because they eat more than you in there. It figures that you would get in trouble in prison." he commented while setting down his now empty bowl. "What did you do in there anyway to get into even more trouble?" 

Gwen re-crossed her arms and looked away with her nose pointed to the air and her cheeks puffed up like a chipmunk's.

"I ain't telling, not until you get me some more food." the mage then quickly turned and pointed at the three other former prisoners, "and you guys, no telling!"

Kieran was still not paying attention, so he didn't bother to reply to her comment, while the two looked away and continued eating. Yale raised a brow at that. "You guys aren't really going to listen to her, are you?" he asked pointing a thumb at the younger girl who wiped her head around and stuck her tongue out at him. 

"'Ta' be honest, I don't know why, she was there before we were." Brom answered.

Yale looked at Nephenee who kept her face to her food. The teal haired girl soon looked up and saw him staring; she then quickly looked back down, shrugging her shoulders and avoiding any and all eye contact from the mage and fighter.

"Well, it doesn't matter anyway, because there isn't any food left."

 "What!" Gwen squeaked while jumping up to quickly look into the once boiling pot sitting over the extinguished flame. "Who ate it all?" she asked, frowning down at the empty pot, her voice echoing slightly off the black metal walls.

 "Everyone did." Yale answered the obvious question.

"But there was so much left!" she exclaimed; Yale was beginning to noticed a few members of the camp starting to look over at their fire. This was getting ridiculous.

"You probably saw it before Ilyana got to it, we have her get the last helping or the person behind her won't even get scraps." Mist explained as both she and Rolf walked over to gather the used dishes.

Yale knew that they would eventually get to know Gwen's childish side, but he'd hoped it wouldn't be this soon as the small mage started to grumble under her breath in protest. Yale couldn't believe how she was acting, these people helped with her escape and here she was complaining after they had already fed her, what seemed like, half of their bread supply.

"Gwen, knock it off. I'll let you have more to eat tomorrow." She stuck her tongue out again in annoyance, but eventually returned to her spot around the fire; she was still pouting, but in silence.

"You really need to start acting your age." Yale stated handing his plate off to Mist who watched then nervously, thinking about something to say to keep food out of her new friends mind.

"So...I heard you're from Daein, is that right?" She spoke over the sound of dishes clattering as Rolf almost dropped then at the question. 

"You're from there!"

"Why is that so surprising?" Gwen asked looking up at the archer. Her head resting on her arms folded over her scarred knees.

"Well, it's just that..." he paused for a bit trying to find the right words. "Why would they, you know...arrest one of their own?"

Why was he so nervous to ask that? Did he think they were going to lash out? Judging the look on Gwen's face she was wandering the same thing.

"Well, I haven't been there since I was ummm..." Gwen trailed off looking up at nothing with her tongue poking out between her lips until her head finally snapped back down "I think I was eight, no, maybe nine, so they didn't know I was."

"Why did you leave?" Rolf asked, now sitting next to her. Boyd made a noise that sounded like a bit if a laugh giving his brother a 'really?' look.

"Did you seriously just ask that? You peewee, who wouldn't want to get out of there?"

The younger brother puffed out his blushed cheeks, "Don't call me that! And it's a good question too, I wanna know." 

"So do I," Mist jumped in. "People from there seen to really love their country, so why did you both leave?" 

"It mainly had to do with the king." Yale answered, "Get rid of him, and a lot of people would better off."

"What do you mean?" Mist asked also taking a seat next to them, the dishes in her hands long forgotten.

"They seem pretty happy to me to die for their king" Boyd added.

"It's because they don't see the bigger picture. You see, he only really cares for the upper class, sure you can come from nothing and to becoming a general, but a lot of the rural areas are barely looked at." 

"When I was little," Gwen continued, "a large section of land caught on fire, and it was all farm land full of crops and livestock, he didn't do anything to help them so a lot of families starved and became homeless. Also, when it comes to the schools, they did nothing but tell us how bad and evil all of the other countries where, it was kind of scary hearing people talk like that with this weird look in their eyes."

"So, we left before it got even worse, and it did. I just don't get this king." Yale shook his head. "Sure he might be able to take over Crimea, but at the cost of any allies he might have had. If Crimea where to revolt, no other county would come to his aid, at least we think so." 

There was a small pause until Boyd began to chuckle, "You both have some bad luck, you left Daein to get away from the king and then he's invested the county you choose to leave to."

"Don't laugh at that, it's not funny." Rolf sculled his older brother, who just kept chuckling while waving off his brother's comment.

"It is a little." Gwen added with a smile. Yale glared at her for agreeing with the fighter, but she just shrugged in response, "Well, it is."

"That doesn't make it any less inappropriate."

The brunette fighter jerked forward as a hand slapped his back, hard. "Lighten up Yale, she's fine."

He shrugged his hand off, clearly annoyed, as he pointing a finger at her, giving a stern disappointed look, "You know, for someone that 'wants to help them out and to save the country' you really don't seem to care that much."

Yale was a little relieved to see her look a little guilty, while Boyd frowned. "Hey now, don't get the wrong idea. We've been fighting against this war since it started," Boyd then pointed his thumb at his chest "I, personally, have saved the princess countless of times." The young man boasted proudly.

"Liar."

Boyd glared down at his brother with a silent threat. Rolf ignored the fighter, and began to change the subject to try and keep his brother from continuing any fables of his fighting.

"So are you guys' mercenaries too?" he asked, eagerness in his voice. 

As Yale told him 'No.' Gwen piped up with an equally eager and proud 'Yep!' then a pause as they looked at each other, both knowing how this argument has been going on for years.

"We're hired hands."

"Which is the same as mercenary work." Gwen added.

"Not really though."

"Kind of is."

"We are not hired killers."

"Did I say we are assassins?" She asked with annoyance rising in her voice.

"No, we rarely agree to work those jobs and you know that." he replied, turning to Boyd to further explain. "We mostly get hired by farmers or blacksmiths to help around with their crops, livestock, building, extra work, anything really."

"Sounds annoying." he commented.

Yale shrugged at the shorter fighter. "It's not too bad, we're not that picky on the work we get, as long as they pay us in food and board, it doesn't matter to us."

Gwen was about to speak out but was stopped by Yale's hand being held up in the air. "Though, we do occasionally ask for money."

"Actually, I was gonna say you mean room and board."

"What? Oh, right, I mean room and board." Yale corrected before nodding at her. "Thanks."

Gwen saluted to the brunet with a smile, "Any time, bro."

"Were you doing a job at the port you where at?" Mist asked.

"No, we're heading out of the country by then."

"Where were you going?" 

"Begnion." Gwen replayed to the cleric.

"Oh, that's perfect! Are you going to stay with us in Begnion?"

The two in question looked at each other, remembering their earlier discussion. 

"We'll stay with you while you're in Begnion, but if you're leaving to another country we're staying there." Yale replied to Mist before he felt an elbow poking him in his arm.

"Aww come on, you know you wanna keep fighting. You could go down in history as a hero!" Boyd argued.

"You just want Titania to pick on someone other than you." Rolf mocked with a smirk, earning yet another annoyed look for the older sibling. However, Boyd's face quickly changed into a smirk as well.

"And you just don't want to be the youngest one here."

 "Not true!" he yelled. "Besides, me and Mist are the same age." the archer felt proud of himself to mention that with his arms crossed, they stayed crossed until Mist piped up.

 "Actually, I'm a few months older, remember?"

 "Aww, come on, Mist!" Rolf's face fell as he felt betrayed by the young cleric.

Yale saw Gwen trying to hold back a smirk; he rolled his eyes knowing why she was happy about their comments.

 "How old are you two?" Gwen asked, pointing a finger between the two.

Mist and Rolf both looked at each other before they replied in unison. "Fifteen."

"And how old do you think I am?" the teens both paused while Boyd blurted out eleven. A large smile started to spread on her face. Yale knew she loved tricking people; it was a weird hobby of hers. She had once tricked someone for a week straight to think she was a mute; needless to say, the one being tricked wasn't happy when she found out. The only problem with this trick was that she was starting to actually age. She was the definition of a late bloomer: but that didn't mean she wasn't going to start growing up and Yale had a feeling it was going to be soon.

"I'll be seventeen this winter."

"You're sixteen?" Boyd asked skeptically. "No way; you're even shorter than the pipsqueaks over here." he shoved a thumb in the directions of both younger teens.

"I can see it." Mist stated looking at Gwen with a tilted head while Rolf just looked sad with the fact that he was still the youngest.

 "How old are you then?" Boyd asked looking at Yale.

"I'll be twenty fi-"

"You guys don't seem that shocked." Gwen interrupted with a disappointed voice.

"Oh," Mist said looking confused; she turned to Rolf who just shrugged his shoulders.

"Leave them alone Gwen, not everyone needs to be shocked out of their mind because you're short and have a baby face." Yale stated, getting a little tired of how she acted.

Gwen sighed, resting her chin in her hands with her cheeks puffed out pouting. She used to be able to shock people with her age; but lately, no one has really seemed that shock anymore. Just because she loved tricking people, doesn't mean that she is always good at it.

"Hey Rolf, Mist!" Oscar called out from one of the newly extinguished fires. "Did you two finish washing the dishes?"

 Mist let out an 'eep!' noise while Boyd laughed at them.

"Sorry Oscar!" Rolf called out. "We'll take care of it now!"

The oldest of the siblings walked over to them, carrying a bucket of water for extinguishing their fire, a frowning on as he watched the two youngest gathered the dishes and head to the river. He knew he would have to stay up to wait for them now. 

"I'll help!" Gwen called out as she ran after them in a sprint, nearly tripping over herself as she tried to shove her feet into her black boots, leaving the silver buckles unclasped. Yale flinched a bit, part of him wanting to fallow but stopped, convincing himself that she'll be fine.

"Is everyone asleep?" Boyd asked, standing up from the fallen log, stretching out his muscles as Yale started to gather Gwen's cloak 

"They're trying too, and so should you: I'll stay up to wait for them." Oscar told his younger brother.

"You sure?" Oscar merely nodded his head as he shooed the middle sibling away. Boyd yawned while he nodded an 'okay' and walked towards the group of tents surrounding the fires, entering the one he shared with is brothers and the twin merchants, mumbling a goodnight.

Oscar called back while Yale started towards the tent both he and Gwen shared with Rhys and Brom. His hand reached out to open the cloth but was stopped by the calm voice from the fire behind him.

"He really is taking this war seriously."

Yale turned around to look at the green haired man poking at the fire, looking where the three teens had run off. Yale hadn't thought that someone else was paying attention to their conversation, making him even more embarrassed about Gwen's behavior.

"If it wasn't for this war, so many things wouldn't be messed up. I'm sure no one has told you this, so I will, both Ike and Mist lost their father not too long ago because of this war." Oscar turned his head to look at the fighter with a serious face.

"That man took in my brothers and I when we had no one to turn too; it was a painful lost for Boyd."

"I'm sorry, I really am, but you should understand then that everything I do and say is so that I can protect her. If I lose Gwen, I'll lose everything."

"As an older brother I respect and understand that. Though we may not know you that well, Ike, Titania and I can see that your intentions are good. So as long as you are with us, we see both you and Gwen as family." Oscar stated with a sad smile. "And we protect our family, so you don't need to worry about her when you're with us."

Yale looked over in the direction in which two the girls laughter could be heard after Rolf's yelling over the sound of a large splash. Sighing, he looked back towards the fire and the knight. How was this any different than a normal work situation? I have always ended up in the house of strangers with Gwen, counting on them to take care of us as we worked. I have to lighten up a bit with her, at least with them being around.

"Thank you." he finally said before heading into the tent as Oscar told him to sleep well. 

When he entered the cramped space he had to quietly tip toed over to the far side of the tent to not wake up the sleeping priest and knight. When he made it, he slowly remove his large brown belt, setting it down in the corner next to his bag and spaulders, wincing when the metal made a subtle clink noise as they hit the worn cracked armor. Turning around from the small pile of belongings, he found that they had laid out the thick blanket he had in his pack. Yale noticed that next to the makeshift bed was a thinner blanket laid out with a small blanket to form a pillow.

He sat down on the thin blanket to remove his brown boots before moving the makeshift pillow to the thicker blanket. With a small yawn the fighter laid out on the cloth and hooking his arm under his head to act as a pillow. He took in a deep breath and tried to fall asleep; but he was unable to.

He remained awake, thinking about how things had turned out, that she was back to being safely at his side. It still didn't feel real, and the fear of it all going away and sending him back to frantically looking for her made Yale afraid to close his eyes. The feeling twisted his gut to the point of it hurting; even if it was real, he still needed to try and get her out of harm's way. The fighter didn't want to fail at it, not again. But with this many people looking out for her with him, their changes where a lot better than before. Yale might not know these people that well, but he wasn't unfamiliar to taking kindness from strangers, as long as he did something in return. None of that would mattered though if it was just a dream, but he will never know if it was a dream until he actually fell asleep.

With an inward groan he tried flipping over away from the empty bed to face the back of the priest's head. It would be a miracle that he would a decent night's sleep. Since Daein had begun its invasion, he had been worried sick about what would happen to the point that he had to sleep with one eye open; however, since he couldn't sleep with his eyes open, Yale was forced to just stay awake while Gwen slept peacefully and blissfully naive of whatever danger might erupting around them.

He worried how she would sleep now, if she was even able to sleep after what she went through. Then again, he didn't know exactly what did happen to her. He was about to turn over again when he heard Mist and Rolf say goodnight to Oscar and head off to bed. Gwen's voice was there as well, but after they departed she never entered the tent. He would have been worried if he couldn't hear her mumbling something just outside of the tent.

He waited, listening to try and understand what she was saying, but failed. After a bit of silence, he heard the rustling of fabric as she entered the tent; for a while she paused and then he heard her rustle around until, not so gently, tossed her boots near his armor. Yale heard her chuckle lightly under her breath as she laid down onto the bed with the firmer padding. There was a short pause, then rustling, and more rustling, her sighing and then silence. He soon he figured she was asleep until she turned over and he felt something warm pressed to his back. He was a little shocked. She hadn't slept this close to him in years.

After some time he heard her breath subtle down into a shallow snore, allowing Yale to know that, this time for sure, she was asleep. When a few minutes ticked by he turned around again to face her. The light from the moon barely showed through the opening of the tent, but it was just enough for him to see her face. The fighter slowly ran his thumb gently over her cheek and frown. She had been crying. 

Yale sighed as he held her protectively to him. Something did happen, he knew it, and the worst part was that she was stubborn enough to keep it hidden. Yale pulled his hand away from her back and looked at his palm where a barely noticeable scar was slashed onto the skin. Yale closed his eyes as he pulled her closer, whispering an old promise to her, one that she had forced him to make to her threw a pact.

"I won't let anyone harm you again," he whispered into her hair as his eyelids grew heavy. "I can't. When you die, I die."


	4. Scarred

All at once she felt lonely, bitter, cold and terrified. Clutching her eyes shut and curling into a small ball, her trembling hands held over her ears in an attempt to block out the cries of pain coming out of the darkness slowly engulfing her. A deep voice was calling to her, making the teenager's body run cold with fear. She couldn't understand the voice, and she didn't want to; all she wanted to do was ignore the cries and try to find a place in her mind where she still felt safe. That somewhere was pulled away as her body was suddenly stretched out. Her limbs pulled outwards. Ropes quickly wrapping around her bruised wrist and ankles, painfully yanking on her small frame. 

She just wanted to keep her eyes shut, but some outside force pried them open, forcing her to meet the face of an onyx clad soldier. The Daein's face was the color of ash. His eyes torn out leaving bloody sockets that were hollowed and decaying. He smiled down at her, flashing rotting black teeth threw ripped lips. As his smile grew, he revealed a hacked off tongue twirling in his mouth, making her stomach turn. She tried to cry out for help, but only a whimper was able to pass threw her dry lips. Light eyes began to widen in fear as she watched the man's hand rise up in a fist, showing her pale flesh that was blacken with dirt and crusted old blood. She couldn't tell if the old blood was from other victims or when the guard's nails were pried off. In the end it didn't matter, she knew that soon hers would join the stains.

The man's fingers wrapped around a rusted dagger making her to panic even further as she began to try and pull free of her bindings; but the rope only tighten, rubbing her skin raw as blood soon started to run down her arms, dripping onto the floor. The beating of her heart rang in her ears, high above the noise of the screams around her as she watched him raise the dagger high above his head. The outside force keeping her eyes open held strong as she let out a panicked whimper causing the now amused man to chuckle as he smiled down at her, ripping open the wounded lips. More of the guard's blood flowed down his face, dripping down on her as he smiled. He continued to smile as she frantically pulled at the ropes, ignoring the burning pain on her wrist. She finally found her voice as the guard threw down his fist to plunge the jagged dagger deep into her belly. The pain never reached her. The mage shot up from the faded wooden floor of the wagon, ending the terrible nightmare. Gwen's panicked breaths took over her as she quickly looked around her, soaking in her surroundings before pulling back her sleeve and revealing the scar wrapping around her pale wrist, she was glad it wasn't bleeding but was still sickened that it was there. Bringing the sleeve back down, a tightness in her throat began to grow to the point where she could no longer keep it in. Pulling her legs up to her chest, concealing her face as her body shook and she bit her bottom lip, trying to block out the noise.

She let the bumps of the trail sooth her as she rocked her fit away and after a few seconds she loosened her death grip from around her legs and rubbed her face over bony knees, trying to wipe away the cold sweat and tears. Part of her believed it could possibly take away the mutilated face that haunted her, it didn't. 

"Gwendolyn?" the young mage jumped at the sound of her name. Whipping her head around, she stared at Rhys' shadowed face as he leaned against the side of a wooden crate, his back to the front of the wagon as Oscar pulled them along the rear of their caravan.

"Sorry." Gwen hissed in a whispered, not wanting to wake up anyone else. She smiled at him while pulling down her dark teal hood. Carelessly ignoring the obvious reason for his worried look.

"Are you alright?" he asked pulling his own hood down, allowing her to see his worried stricken face a little clearer. Her smile faltered a little as she shrugged.

"I'll be fine, so don't worry." she waved her hand to brush off the subject "Sorry if I woke you, you can go back to sleep."

"Gwendo-" Rhys started but he was caught off my said girl leaning out of the side of the rocking wagon, keeping her eyes off his face.

"Hey Oscar, how much farther until we stop? I'm starving!" she exclaimed before quickly slapping a hand over her mouth, hoping she didn't wake up anyone. They did deserve to sleep.

To make up for lost time, Ike had informed everyone that they were to keep walking until they arrived at port Toha. There were few complaints, but no one outright argued at the commander since they found a way to make it easier on everyone. After walking for a few hours, you would switch off with someone riding on either a horse or one of the wagons. Even the princess insisted on taking turns for the rest of the group, which surprised Gwen. She had always pictured royalty to be snobbish and inconsiderate, but Princess Elincia was quickly erasing that stereotype.

The green knight gave her a quick glance, she could tell that he was frowning but ignored it just as she did with Rhys. "We'll stop when we get to Toha, which should be soon." Oscar looked up at the clear night sky for a few seconds. "I think we'll get there by morning and the sun should rise up in a few more hours." Gwen frowned. She could sometimes tell the time during the day but never at night. Yale had failed at teaching her that. All the stars just looked the same to her.

"So, not for a while." she concluded while holding her growling stomach.

He turned to her, revealing an apologetic smile. "No, sorry. I'm sure that if you go back to sleep it will go by much faster."

The mage let out a small okay as she started to pull her head back into the wagon, but stopped her movements when she noticed Yale walking by the cart just ahead of them. Gwen couldn't make out who he was talking to; but whoever it was, they were holding an interesting conversation. She could tell this by how many times the brunette wasn't yawning. He had a bad habit of yawning when he was in a boring conversation. Settling herself down, Gwen rested her head on her crossed arms draped over the railing. She watched the tall fighter continue to talk with a slight smile on her face as he beginning to gesture with his hands making her curious as to what he was talking about. She hoped he wasn't talking about something lame. He needed to make some friends at some point in his life.

Sleep was slowly began to take over the teenager's body, causing Gwen's eyes to droop down as she watched Yale threw slow blinking eyes. She didn't want to go back to sleep but she felt so tired. She was certain that the nightmares would stop after she left that place, but even last night they kept conning. If it wasn't for Yale being so exhausted, he would have been woken up by her nearly every hour. In mid thought, Gwen's sleepy head jerked up at the feeling of the wagon stopping. Curious, Gwen looked behind her to ask Rhys if he knew why they had stopped. It was still dark out and from their surroundings they were still on the trail in the forest with no village in sight, so she didn't know why they would. Rhys stayed silent beneath his hood after she asked. Shrugging, she left the sleeping priest alone, not wanting to wake him up again, as she leaned back over the railing of the wooden cart to look at Oscar. He should at least understand why we had stopped.

What she saw shocked her. His shoulders were slumped down with the light swaying slowly, threatening to slip from his loose fingers and off his shoulder.

"Oscar? "

There was no response, making her stomach sink as she noticed that the whole caravan had passed out. Hopping over the railing of the wagon, the mage walked up to him with slow hesitant steps, resting her hand along the horse to keep it calm, though it was more for her benefit.

"Oscar," she called out again in a shaky voice, "What's going…" her stomach fell as she looked at his pale vacant face. Even with her vision, Gwen could make the stream of blood flowing out of the corner of his dull eyes and down his cheeks to merge with the blood slowly dripping from his mouth. Mortified, she stepped back from the corps as a sickening fear shot through her. The urge to turn and run to Yale took over, but before she could even move, Gwen felt a hand lay heavily on her shoulder. Terrified, she became rigged for minutes before hesitantly turning around to face the person behind her. Gwen let out a silent scream with tears streaming down her face as she looked upon Yale's jagged skinned face leaning down to her eye level, allowing the sickened girl to see his bloody eye sockets just before the light slipped from Oscar's shoulder, landing on the ground, shattering.

Gwen let out a sob as her eyes shot open. The mage shoved herself off the edge of the wagon making her land on Rhys' feet, startling the drowsy priest. She jumped at the feeling of his hand on her, but calmed when she felt him squeezing her shoulder to try and stop her shaking.

"Gwendolyn, what's wrong." he asked in a surprisingly demanding voice.

Gwen shook her head as her throat tighten up forcing her to work for each breath. "I'm…" she clenched her eyes and attempted to clear her throat, it worked but her throat still hurt and it left her chest aching. "I'm okay, it's okay. It was just a bad dream. It's just a dream." she repeated the latter part several times to herself, nearly forgetting about the priest until he shook her shoulder. The movement made her jump again before she took a deep breath and turned to face, trying to give him a reassuring smile just like before, but it wasn't even worth the try. The look on his face, nothing would convince him that she was okay.

He stayed silent as he watch her, she didn't know what he was looking for or if he found it when he finally looked up at Oscar, who was watching them with an equally worried frown.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Rhys finally asked her, but Gwen already started to shake her head before he even had time to finish. 

"No, I just...I just want to forget it." besides how was he supposed to help it; did healers have a special brew to stop any and all nightmares? She doubted it.

Rhys must have not paid much attention to what she was saying, or was just too stubborn to give up. "Was it the same dream as before?" he asked.

Gwen didn't reply, she instead brought her knees up to her chest and leaned up against the back of the wagon next to the concerned priest. "Does your brother know about them?" She tucked chin to her chest to hide her face within her arms.

"I don't him to worry." she mumbled into her legs. The priest sighed in response as he replaced a hand on her shoulder, trying to make her feel secure.

"Hey, Rhys? "

"Yes? "

"Can...can you keep this a secret from Yale? "

 "It's not my business to tell. But, I don't think it's wise to keep this a secret from him, he's already worried about you."

There was a long pause between the two, the dull noise of hushed voices of those awake were nearly muffled over the sound of the wheels and the creek of the swaying lanterns filled the dark early morning air. The sound was calming and she hated that, if it kept being peaceful she'd fall asleep, and she couldn't sleep.

"I don't want to sleep."

"Would you like to talk about something?" Rhys asked in an attempt to get her mind away from whatever plagued her dreams. 

Gwen thought about what to talk about for a while, yawning a few times in the process, until a question popped up in her mind. "Why are you called the Greil Mercenaries? I didn't meet anyone named Greil."

Rhys seemed to hesitate for a few seconds. "...Greil is...was...Mist and Ike's father. He passed away not too long ago." Gwen re-buried her face back into her arms in awkward gilt.

"I'm sorry." she mumbled feeling stupid for asking. She should have known it was something like that. The mage needed to come up with something fast to stray away from death.

"So...how did you join?" she asked turning her head back to watch the priest, pleading in her head that he wasn't an orphan or anything of the sort.

"I joined them about a year ago, I was collecting herbs when I found Titania bleeding on the forest floor, so I took her back home to heal her. After that, Titania had me join them so that I could send money back home to support my parents." Gwen smiled, happy that it was a good story and not something depressing. 

"Do your parents know where you're at now?" he shook his head at her question, looking a little sadden.

"Oh, I'm...sorry." she didn't really know what else to say.

"It's alright. They know I'm safe and so are they. I'm sure of it." Rhys turned to the girl, she noticed that his eyes were droopy making Gwen felt a little bad for keeping him from sleeping, but if she ended up falling asleep again, she was sure she would just end up waking him up once again with her nightmare.

"...your parents? "

Gwen shook her head to bring her mind to attention, "What? "

He smiled at her, "What about your parents."

"Oh, pirates took them."

Rhys shook his head a bit, possibly wondering if he had misheard her, "Pirates? "

She nodded her head and the confused priest. "Yea...It's a long story."

"I…I see…"

"Are there any books on this wagon?" she asked. Sleep was beginning to weigh down her eyelids at a rate that scared her.

"We have a few, why?" the priest's drowsy mind was having a difficult time keeping up with how her attention jumped from topic to topic. His head was still trying to wrap around the whole pirates thing.

"I haven't read anything in months, and I really miss it." she answered, not completely lying, Gwen did miss reading but what she honestly wanted from the book was a place for her mind to escape. The priest hesitated for a few seconds before pulling out a book from his own satchel and handing it off to the eager teen.

"Don't hurt your eyes." he warned as he watched her bring her legs up close to her body, setting the book's spine in-between her knees and far too close to her face than anyone else he had ever seen, at least, someone as young as her.

"Don't worry. I've read in the worst light than this. Thanks." She heard Rhys let out a tired heavy sigh as he told her to get some sleep if she could before falling asleep himself. She hated that he got pulled just a pitch into her problems, she never wanted that to happen, she never wanted anyone to notice the nightmares. She closed her eyes, thinking that she was so stupid for falling asleep in the first place surrounded by so many people, of course someone would notice. She shook her head before re-burying her nose back into the foreign book, hoping that it was interesting enough to keep her awake.

 

 ⦗⥺⦘

 

"Gwen, we're here. "

Bloodshot eyes narrowed as she told the voice to leave, turning the page of the surprisingly interesting book on herbs. Mist ignored the protest and just giggled as she poked the mage's head.

"Come on, you've been reading all morning."

Growling at the younger girl, Gwen flung her hand out blindly to try to swat away the cleric's earning laughter from Rolf. Lifting her head, she glared the two before sticking her tongue out at them playfully. 

"You know, I never took you for a book worm." Mist commented on the sleepy teen who started to try to bend her back while still sitting, trying to get rid of the cricks. Gwen wouldn't recommend sitting on the floor of any wagon again. The forest floor was better than any cart's, especially if there was a tree whose roots made a perfect backrest.

 "I am full of many surprises, just like this tiny book." she commented threw a yawn before putting the book back into its position up close to her face. It didn't stay there long, Rolf quickly pulled the book away from her face right before getting a little too close for her comfort.

"Isn't it hard to read when your eyes do that?"

Gwen just shrugged her shoulders. She hated answering that question, especially since she didn't know how to respond, she didn't know what it would look like if her eyes didn't shake. To be honest though, she didn't even feel like it affected her vision, but it did sometimes make her head shake. Rolf was probably irritated by her lack of response and with the fact that took the book back and placed it back it's spot on her knees.

"Fine, be that way. I guess you'd rather read then get something to eat."

 The mage slowly lowered her book to glare at the smug archer in a way that made her two new friends start to laugh. Gwen tried her best to keep her angered look as she closed the book and stood up. "Fine, I'm up." she mumbled before dusting off her skirt and walking past the duo. She tried to make herself seem impressive to them by jumping off the back of the still moving wagon, it was a bit of a failure since she nearly fell in the process from the imbalanced landing, but she played it off well. Both Rolf and Mist soon followed cheerfully, with a cleaner landing than hers, as they quickly joined her to start their walk towards the entrance of Toha.

Gwen couldn't help but smile at the smell of the ocean that slowly began to grow stronger and stronger with each step. Despite the fishy smell, it always seemed to feel so clean to her, calming her down and making her feel at ease; she just hoped that Yale was feeling the same. His mood was getting better, but she couldn't help but notice how his irritated he was lately. Mist had already been commented that when they first saw him, he looked like he was out for blood…her steps slowed while her body shuddered as the visions from last nights events were brought back. She quickly took a few deep breaths, trying to clear up a majority of the vision before it completely took over. Her hands tried to curl into a tight fist to keep them steady, but one was stopped by the book still in her hand. She looked down at the small book that Rhys had given her, sighing at the guilty feeling of keeping him awake, giving her the urge to stand on her tip toes while she walked; trying to look above the tall group ahead to find the priest. She cursed the sun's bright glare as she squinted in vain of finding him, didn't help that he wore all white.

"Are you trying to find your brother?" Mist asked as Rolf began to walk on ahead towards his oldest brother.

Gwen shook her head. "I wanna give Rhys his book back."

"Oh, I think he walked on ahead to talk to Ike about medical supplies we might need."

"That's gonna cost a lot." Gwen commented as she placed the book in her bag for safe keeping, wondering if Yale had any money for them to use, if she is going to go off to battle she wanted to get a new tome. 

Mist shook her head as they started across the bridge above the large stream that emptied into the ocean, allowing them to pass large stone walls encasing Toha. "It will, but we got a lot of gold from the king of Gallia."

Gwen smiled as she remembered the stories of the mercenary's adventure that they shared before falling asleep. "I still can't believe she is the princess and that you guys are escorting her like a personal army, and that you meet the king of Gallia!" she wondered what the king of Gallia looked like, probably a giant if someone as big as Mordecai is only a foot soldier. They didn't have a lot of time to get to the little details if their stories, only the enthusiastic grand scale of it all. Though, now that she really thought about it, they must have left a lot out. The mage couldn't remember her or Rolf talking about Grail. I just wonder if there was anyone else that they had lost.

"It is exciting though," Mist stated, bringing Gwen out if her thoughts, "to think that we will stop this war."

Gwen didn't have the heart to tell her that the possibilities of that happening were a little slim, the mage may not know a lot about politics and all that, but she did know that Daein's forces were greater than theirs. Even with the Apostles help it would be hard to do; however, she did hope for them to beat the mad king's army and she wished even more that she could join them.

"It really sucks that I can't stay with you guys."

"Why can't you? "

She sighed in annoyance, "Yale. He doesn't want me fighting."

"But what happens if you fight on the way to Begnion?" Mist ask as Rolf slowed down to let the girls catch back up with him.

"You think we will? "

"We've faced pirates before on land, so I would be surprised if we didn't in the water." The young archer stated, getting a sense of what they were talking about.

Gwen's eyes widen. They had seen pirates, actual pirates! "That is so cool." she stated to herself with a huge smile on her face, earning a confused look from the other two. Ever since she was little, Gwen had wanted to be a pirate. It was to the point where she had tried to talk like one for several months. She would have worn an eye patch if it weren't so annoying. Her eyesight was bad enough.

Gwen continued to daydream about swashbuckling pirates and having an epic battle as they stood in the midst of the bustling village, the group slowly starting to disperse into the market as Ike gave lists of supplies to a select few to gather.

"I don't get it." Mist stated as Gwen finished up her daydream and went into eavesdropping mode.

"I know," Rolf added, "It's so weird."

The mage looked around her, to see what was so weird about the port; but nothing came up. There were an absence of food with large washed out crowds of people shuffling about. Each going on with their lives and talking amongst themselves as carts holding different variety of goods rolled passed them; either heading away or towards the many different ships, both large and small, merchants and fishermen. Maybe it was the fact that they were so busy during a war, but the other port her and Yale he visited was busy as well; granted, not as much as this one, but busy nonetheless. Gwen tried to look at the buildings around her for anything. They didn't seem much out of the ordinary, at least not to her. A few rundown buildings here and there, but they were caused by age and neglect on the owner's behalf not from a skirmish. She actually was starting to like the port city; the rumbling of the carts beneath her feet, the sound of the wave crashing against the ships and docks; roaring over the noise of the seagulls hovering overhead and the crowds' commotion. Everything was so alive, something that she had nearly forgotten. Sure, the Greil Mercenaries did help her feel apart of society again, but this was even better. Gwen closed her eyes and took in the sea air deeper into her lunges once again, she was half tempted to stroll over to the steam that cut its way through the town and dip her feet into the cool water but was stopped by Rolf's voice.

"You aren't bothered by this?" Gwen looked up at the archer and shrugged her shoulders.

"Honestly, I don't have a clue about what you two are talking about."

"We're talking about this." Rolf threw his arms out to showcase the port. "They're acting as if the war isn't even happening."

"That's because it isn't for them." they gave her a puzzled look as Rolf asked her what she meant. Gwen crossed her arms while clearing her throat as she tried to think of how Yale had explained it to her when she was a little confused as to why the villagers didn't seem to mind the Daeins being there.

"Basically, they're probably thinking 'Hey, my family isn't in any harm, so why should I care?'."

Mist's face fell at the comment. "That's a horrible thing to say."

Gwen just shrugged. "People are selfish Mist. Would you guys have joined in the war if the Princess hadn't fallen into your hands?" Rolf looked as if he was about to speak but she cut him off, "Hell, I'm sure that if I hadn't been taken, I wouldn't want anything to do with this war. I mean, sure, I like this country and all and I would want to help out, but I know I would just become another casualty. And, I don't know about you guys, but I like being alive."

Rolf looked at her skeptically. "So, you really wouldn't have done anything? "

 "I would a little, give food or something like that, but not nothing like staying to fight."

 "So being kidnapped changed that?" Mist asked as Gwen noticed Yale walking up to them.

 She began to smile and wave at the tall fighter when he nodded at her. "It's a little more complicated than that."

 "What do you mean by-? "

 "Morning!" she exclaimed, cutting off Rolf from his question as she jogged up to the fighter. Rolf stared at her as she ran off with an irritated frown. "Is she always going to interrupt me?" he asked as Mist gave him a sympathetic smile.

 Gwen started to slow down to a walk as she approached the fighter who gave her a sleepy smile. "How did you sleep?" he asked, scratching the back of his head.

 "Pretty good." I didn't sleep at all. "was a bit cold though." I wasn't really that cold. "It almost feels like fall is going to be here soon." that makes no sense! It's spring, why are you being so stupid! Yale slowly stopped his movements while giving her a very confused look as she continued to have her inner argument. After a few seconds of awkward silence, her smile started to falter at the look on his face. She could tell behind the confused look that he was also warn. He usually clear dark eyes looked dulled with the dark bags hanging underneath them, staining his sun kissed skin with a purple hue. He stumbled face showed clearly that he needed a shave after he got his hair trimmed. Thick strands poked out on the side of his face beneath the dark band wrapped over his forehead while some flopping over the top. Even the fighter's stance was off, his shoulders slouched down and she knew it wasn't due to the weapon's weight that was strapped on his back. Her eyes scanned over his face and caught his eyes. No doubt about it, he was no longer confused and knew she was lying.

 "So, when we boarding the ship?" she asked quickly before he asked anything else.

"...No clue. We're going to gather some supplies first. I know that much." She looked at him skeptically. Last time they were together they barely had enough to possibly bribe a merchant to let them onto their ships. Since he did need to eat during those two months, find places to sleep and possibly bribe, she wondered exactly how much he had.

"We can afford getting supplies? "

He frowned at her, "You do realize that I'm the one who is good with money, right? "

She stuck her tongue out at him, earning a small chuckle. "You still didn't answer my question you know."

He rolled his eyes before pulling out a pouch from the bag on his hip. It looked bulky, so there was probably enough for them to both get new weapons from one of the merchants they were traveling with, which she needed, some food and even vulnerary. 

"We're borrowing some from Ike, so don't go spending it on useless things or go gambling it away."

"You're never going to let that down, are you? "

He shook his head at her. "You wasted our biggest paycheck, of course I'm not."

No matter how many times she won their money through bets, he never would let that one time she lost down. Today, however, Yale had enough of talking about past fight and motioned her to follow him over to the wagon that held the merchants supplies. As they moved in closer she noticed that Nephenee and Brom were both already talking to the large burly bearded man who sold the weapons. He was a little bit intimidating to say the least, with large arms and scars running across his face and bisects. If they were to ever get into a tough situation, she wondered if he would fight with them, he could work as intimidation if he couldn't. The said merchant turned to look at her, and she couldn't tell if he was glaring at her of it was just his face, but she did made sure to keep her distance as Yale waited his turn.

While she waited her curiosity started to slowly take over as she backed farther away from the fighter and looked around to ensure that no one was watching. When the coast was clear, she quickly leaned over the railing of the wagon and at the assortment of weapons below. She noticed that there wasn't that great of rage in selection for them. But it was better than nothing. Reaching out her small hands, she picked up a heavy axe, grunting as she lifted it up over the railing, irritation at its weight.

 "How the hell can he carry these things all the time?" she asked herself as it barely rested in her hands.

 "Years of practice." she jumped at Yale's voice and swung herself around, nearly cutting him with the heavy axe as he let out a yelp, dodging the blade. Sheepishly, she smiled up at him as the fighter removed the axe from her tiny hands and replaced it with a lightweight wind tome, all the while with a scowl on his face.

 "Stick with the books please, and stop daydreaming."

"I was only going to get you one." Gwen lied as she placed her new book in the brown satchel hanging on her hip. "And like you're one to talk." she mumbled to him about daydreaming.

"Bull," he called her out, ignoring her last comment, "I already have two, why would I need more?" He motioned to the iron axes strapped onto this back, forming a deadly looking X. She leaned over to look at them and noticed that one had a crack in the blade while the other it looked as if it would snap in half at any moment.

 "You sure you don't need a new one?" he shrugged at her.

 "Soon, yea, but this will do for now, so why spend the money when I don't need too. Plus, I don't plan on getting into any battles anytime soon, so it's not a big deal at the moment."

 "Then why do I need one, you were so against it before so what changed?" she question skeptically.

 His face fell as he uncrossing his arms. "You didn't have a tome last time and I don't want to make that same mistake again. I need you to be able to defend yourself if something happens." he reached out to fix the crooked belt around her neck holding her hood in place. "I don't want to lose you again..." Gwen felt her face heat up. Yale was protective of her, it was beyond obvious, but he would normally show it by telling her to stay near him, keep her hood up while in the sun, don't run around or to keep her tome nearby all while holding a stern voice, not in the soft calm one he just used. It was such a rare tone, she hadn't heard him speak like that in years, let alone where other people could hear him, now she was hearing twice in three days.

 She tried to cover her embarrassment for Yale by waving him off with and forced a small laugh.

"Ah, stop your fussing yea' big lush." she muttered.

 Yale couldn't help but give her another confused look. "Do you even know what that mean?"

 She shrugged her shoulders while he rolled his eyes and reached out for her shoulders, pushing her away from the weapons and onwards through the busy streets. After a few steps Gwen started to walk on her own ahead of the fighter, much to his dismay; though, she did make sure to stay close enough so that he wouldn't lose sight of her.

 As they strolled through the streets, she took notice of the faces of the people around her and thought back to what Mist and Rolf had thought of the villager's attitude. What she said about saving her own skin in the past was true, selfish, but true. It didn't make her a bad person though, right? The only times she had to this place are a few jobs that they would return to throughout the year. That was it.

She passed by a few kids playing around as an older girl, possibly an older sister, chased after them with a frantic look on her face.

I wondered what will happen to that to them when Daeins comes here.

 "What's wrong?" Gwen spun her head around and looked up at the taller fighter, who was now carrying a few full pouches of vulnerary. When did he get those?

 "Nothing's wrong. Why? "

 "You look like you're thinking."

 She just smiled at him as she took one of the pouches from his hand. "And that's a bad thing? "

 "When you're frowning it is." he started making her let out a long sigh, damning his brotherly intuition as she placed the vulnerary on her belt while Yale placed his in the loops of his.

 "What do you think will happen to them when they get here?" she asked as a happy family of three strolled past them. The mother held a bag of fresh fish as the father carried a small boy on his shoulder.

 "The Daeins? "

 "Yea."

 "I'm not sure...they didn't seem to have harmed the ones in the other village. Then again, they seemed to have been there for a while, so they could have already harmed a little before we arrived." he stopped for a brief moment to purchase a few pears from an elderly woman, mumbling a thank you before tossing Gwen one of the larger ones for her to catch in her small hands.

"They probably took away anyone that was trying to defy them, kind of like how they went after us." he concluded before taking a larger bite out of the dull yellow-green fruit.

 Gwen looked down at the pear in her hands turning it over. She glared at a tiny brown speck on its skin. "They only did that because you punched him." she stated before taking a bite out of the fruit where the spot was located.

 "He attacked you." Gwen noticed his voice darken. She used her sleeve to wipe away the juices running down her face before looking up to see his face harden. It always made his usual dark blue eyes almost look black while giving of a 'don't mess with me right now' look. She was a little used to this face; Yale was one to anger easily, especially when they were younger. It was to the point where many wouldn't approach him making her do a lot if the talking when they needed a place to stay. She let out a sigh as she followed him in turning the corner, she knew that his anger shouldn't last long. Gwen had become a pro at settling his nerves down, the only time she couldn't is when he got really pissed, but that was rare nowadays.

 "That doesn't mean you had to punch him, I can defend myself you know." Gwen started to break the silence and to reassure him that she would be all right.

 "He was twice your size."

 Gwen rolled her eyes. "Yale, practically everyone is twice my size," she took another bit of the pear, "besides, I've taken on people that big before." she spoke in-between chews.

 "I know, and look where it landed you."

 She wanted to make a snarky comment about him bringing it up again when a memory of last night's dream seeped into her head, allowing her to see the putrid peeled back face of the fighter. His large bloodied hands clutching onto her shoulders. Her body froze at the vision; it didn't help that she could still see blood on his pants. Gwen felt the same panic she did the other day when she saw him exit out of the prison, covered in his own blood. Yale must have noticed her steps slowing down until she was standing still. Her shoulders shaking as she looked down at her feet.

 "Please, stop talking about that." she pleaded, her voice barely audible by the laughing children running past.

 "...sorry."

 Silence fell between them as they wandered through the streets. The sounds of merchants calling out to potential customers, boasting about their fresh products or their outstanding sales rang in her ears. She was grateful for their commotion; Gwen was never one for silence and she didn't like how often they were starting to become between them. She could feel his eyes on her as she walked ahead, trying to will the mage to tell him what was on her mind, but it wasn't anything for him to worry about. It was her burden to bare not his and she didn't want her nightmares to spread over to his mind.

 "Your eye looks better."

 "What?" she slowed down her pace to look up at the tall fighter, he pointed at her once black eye that Rhys had finished off healing. The bruise was gone, but it still looked a little banged up with the cut running across her eyebrow, but it didn't hurt as much anymore, just stung.

 "Oh, thanks."

 "I think it might scare though, same for your side." he stated, throwing away the core of his pear.

 She shrugged her shoulders at the comment. "Like I care about scars, s'not like I'm girly or anything."

 "Yea, sure...look I'm sorry, I just need to know that you're going to be alright."

 "I know, but you need to believe me when I say that I'm okay, okay? "

 The fighter started to rub the back of his neck, causing Gwen to wince, she hated when he did that, it always meant that he was nervous about something. His hand finally dropped to his side as he let out a defeated sigh.

 "Alright fine, I won't ask about it anymore."

"Thank you." she said with a smile on her face, holding back the twinge of guilt she was starting to feel as she took a final bite out of her pear, tossing it to the side of the street.

 "Are you still hungry?" he asked, pointing his thumb over at a short but wide ale house that squatted down in-between noticeably taller buildings.

Gwen placed a hand on her still growling stomach despite the remains of the fruit resting in her belly. "You're going to let me eat?" she asked jokingly while smiling up at him.

 "Hey, I let you have two bowls of soup yesterday,"

 "It was mainly broth." she argued.

 "It's called baby steps. Now, do you want to eat or not." he asked again while slowly backing up towards the alehouses with a slight smirk on his face, no doubt already knowing the answer.

 "If you insist. Your treating?" she asked, also knowing that his answer would be. It was one of the few perks of him carrying the money; he nearly always had to pay.

 "Do I have a choice?" he asked while holding the door open for her to pass through. She couldn't help but let out a cheerful 'Nope!' As she walked by.

 When they entered the alehouses, she realizes that it was far shorter on the inside than it lets on. Yale needed to duck under the planks running across the roof just to keep the top of his head safe. It was at moments like these that she was glad for her height; the top of her head barely grazed his bicep, even with her boots helping her height out, making this place just her size. What she found surprising was how popular the place was despite looking run down and short the building looked on the inside. Nearly every chair was filled with men consisting of all different blobs of shapes and sizes.

"Who would build something this short?" the fighter grumbled as he attempted to avoid any head injuries.

 "What do you mean?" Gwen asked with a fake naive look on her face. "I think it's a perfect height."

 He chuckled, "Of course you would." he reached out to tousle her hair but was stopped by her swatting his hand away.

"Don't do that. My head still hurts a little."

 Yale let out an apology before their names were called out. She was surprised that she could hear anything over the noise of the busy alehouse. Both looked to their left to see the three brothers sitting with Mist in the corner of the crowded alehouses, waving them to come join them. It was a little comical to see them in a place like this. Only Boyd looked like he could fit into the crowd while Oscar and the younger two looked just as out of place as she did.

 "It looks like they had the same idea as us." she chirped up while darting towards them, side stepping between the push out chairs filled with the bulky sailors. She could hear Yale telling her to slow down but she didn't. It wasn't her fault he was so slow and it wasn't like he couldn't see her. When Gwen reached the table she quickly grabbed two of the closest stools to push into the already crowded table, placing them between Rolf and Boyd. The placement forced the brothers to scoot their chairs as she crawled up onto the elevated seat next to the green haired archer. When Yale finally made his way over he made sure to give the pale girl an annoyed glance. He didn't say anything though as she gave him a false innocent shrug, he just sat down on the stool in-between her and the other fighter, who had to rake his stool even farther across the already scrapped floor over, giving him a little more room.

 "Did my brother talk to you yet?" Mist asked before taking a little sip of milk.

 "He wanted to talk to me? "

 "Oh yea, I forgot, he did mention needing to speak to you last night." Yale added as he started to order himself and Gwen a drink from a passing by wench.

 "About what?"

 "To see if you're sane enough to fight." Boyd answered teasingly as he took a hefty gulp of a strong smelling drink.

 "Sane?" Do I seem crazed to them?

 "Knock it off, Boyd." Oscar sculled as he led over to look at the small girl. "Ike just wants to make sure that you are physically and mentally able to fight, he's asking all of the prisoners."

 "Why wouldn't I be?" she asked with a worried look on her face, hoping that Rhys didn't say anything about last night.

 "Well, you are a little on the skinny side, and you were a bit more beat up than the others." Rolf stated pointing to her thin wrist causing Gwen to shove her hands under the table, praying that he didn't notice the scar. Even with her sleeve and glove, there was a slight possibility of it being visible if her sleeve moved just right. If only he was sitting on her left, then she wouldn't have to worry since her armguard made it impossible for him to see it. Then again, she would still have to worry about Yale seeing them, just like she did when he was cleaning her wounds. The whole time she had sat in the river she was on the edge of having a panic attack, her stomach flipping over whenever he came close to seeing them.

"I'm not that starved," she grumbled, keeping her nerves down as the realization that he didn't notice it settled in while her glass of milk was placed in front of her. The teenager's eyes grew wide as the worry left her mind almost as fast as her hand did, snatching up the glass. Gwen wasted little time in chugging the drink down until it was nearly emptied before setting it back on the table. "And Rhys healed me." she continued while whipping off her milk mustache before re-hiding her hands. "He even said that I only would need one more session." Rolf stared at the depleted milk in her cup, he couldn't help but feel like she was lying, but he kept quiet. The archer had a feeling it was hard to win a fight against her, even when she was in the wrong.

 "Speaking of healing, are you still hurt?" Mist asked, directing her eyes at Yale.

 "What?" he asks with his drink partially covering his face.

 "I noticed it the other day when I was cleaning your shirt." she stated while pointing a finger at his left biceps, nearly getting her finger hit by the semi-large plate filled with an assortment of bread and cheese being set in the middle of the small round table.

 Gwen watched Yale self-consciously place his heavy hand on the bandage, side-glancing at it for a split second. "Oh...that...It's-"

 "He's deformed." Gwen stated while popping a piece of cheese into her mouth, frowning at the bitter flavor. She hoped they weren't spending too much on this meal, it wasn't the best. Gwen's frown went away as she began to giggle with mischief as he nudged her, nearly pushing her into Rolf as he told her to 'Knock it off.' She knew very well that it wasn't a deformity due to seeing the scar a number of times, much to his despair. It could be seen as mean, but she enjoyed teasing him about being so insecure about something so petty.

 "Oh, I'm sorry." Mist said while looking at the bread in her hands.

 "I think she's kidding, Mist." Oscar stated as he ate, using his personal knowledge of siblings teasing to figure out the truth.

 She is." Yale stated to the cleric while glaring at the young mage, "It's just an old ugly scar I got in the fires as a kid. People would always stare at it, so I just got into the habit of covering it up. "

 "Can I see it? "

 "Rolf!" Oscar glared at his younger brother. "Don't ask things like that. "

 The younger brother quickly blushed, "I was just curious."

 "Yea peewee, low blow." Boyd teased.

 "It's alright," Yale defended, "Gwen has bugged me about not covering it for years now, but I'd rather not."

 "He just wants to look mysterious." she teased.

 "Just shut up and eat your food."

 She stuck her tongue out at him but did what she was told. In all, that morning was starting to become entertaining to getting to know the siblings a little better; though the girl talk with Mist was a little foreign to her. It felt like she was living a normal life that everyone passing by was living. Gwen didn't want it to end. She didn't want Yale to stop chuckling from Rolf's story of Boyd's first mission. He didn't even seem to be worried about when she started to have a fit from laughing so hard, nearly coughing up some of her milk. The coughing only grew worse as she continued to laugh at her own expense when Yale told the story of how she got stuck in a tree when she was twelve, and how, when he finally convinced her he could catch her, she ended up hitting nearly every branch on the way down, taking out several limbs from the tree which ended up landed on the fighter below. The whole commotion caused him to have a sprained wrist while she had cut her shoulder on the axe that was strapped to his back, leaving a scar on her right shoulder which she loudly displayed in a joking matter at his own scar that he refused to show off.

 This lead to them all displaying their 'battle wounds'. Rolf with a jagged scar on his knee from slipping on a rock in the river, Oscar's cut arm from when he was still stationed with the Crimean Royal Knights, Boyd's calf from an arrow during a fight. Even Mist had a scar on her chin from tripping and slamming it down on a gravel road. The whole show and tell turned into a contest to try to outdo the others scar, it ended with both Gwen and Boyd in a debatable tie. Boyd claimed that the scar on his chest from a poisoned axe out did her healing side as it was tinted an unnatural purple around the red and green cut. She wanted to pull her tunic open and unwrap it to prove that hers looked worse, it was still bright red and caved in her skin, but Yale drew the line there, much to her annoyance.

 It didn't end the fun as they passed a few more stories between each other before finishing their meal and paying their bill. Yale even put in some of his own money to help out. They soon moved the fun from the crowded building and into the streets of Toha, staying around the area just outside of the ale-house for a while to take in the sweet smell of the open sea. Gwen, Mist and Rolf took the opportunity to stare up in wonder at the huge lighthouse that was standing next to the port filled with large ships. It was a little annoying for her though, they kept pointing out a cool carving design on a few of the ships and, no matter how much she squinted, the mage couldn't make out a thing. It took a bit of convincing, but the older siblings were finally able to pull the three away from the port, allowing them to make their way back to the group. On the way Oscar offered to take the supplies, his brothers had gathered up to the caravan, saying that he would gather the rest and inform Ike that they were all ready to leave. They waved him away and called out to him. Boyd voice was louder than the rest and she noticed that his words were slightly slurred making her and Rolf giggle while Yale rolled his eyes at the red clad fighter.

"Hey!" Mist called out to get their attention, though it wasn't necessary for her to yell, the streets were beginning to thin out, leaving only a moderate amount of people to shuffle around on the stone bridge they walked over.

 Gwen cupped her hands and called back in an equally unnecessarily loud voice making both girls giggled. Mist started to wave for them to follow her as she cut through a narrow path in-between a small house and an old moss covered fence, preventing anyone from stumbling into the water below. Though, Gwen doubted that it would even last against her weight.

 "I think I found a shortcut to the others." Mist called as she walked along the grassy path and disappeared into the front of the house. Gwen looked at Rolf who replied with a sly smiled before darting off with her hot on his heels in a race. She could hear Yale out calling for her to slow down but ignored it and kept up with the archer. His legs might have been a bit longer than hers, but that didn't stop Gwen from taking the lead. She had a good chance of winning the race but, as she turned the corner of the path. Gwen's foot suddenly slipped out from underneath her causing her to out a yelp while she tumbled to the wet ground.

 As she lay there in the mud painting, she could hear a fit of laughter coming from the archer. Sitting up onto her elbows and twisting around, Gwen lifted up her fallen hood to see Rolf hunched over with his arms wrapped around his stomach, his body shaking with laughter. Gwen wanted to be mad at him for laughing, but the look on his face as tears streamed down his redden cheeks was too funny. The scene soon caused her to join the archer as she sat there, her butt soaking in the mud below her until before she felt her body being hoisted up.

 "I told you to slow down." Yale stated while, somewhat playfully, smacking the back of her head, she tried to say 'Ow!' But it didn't sound very convincing considering her giggles.

 "What happ-Gwen! I just washed your clothes!" Mist exclaimed as she poked her head from the corner of the house, giving the older teen a glare as she looked at the dirt covering her cloak and skirt.

 The mage waved her off with a smile. "It's no big deal, and I'll just jump into the stream." she announced, jokingly heading over the flimsy fence, acting as if she was about to jump over the railing and into the cold water below.

 "Oh, no you don't you idiot." Yale stated as he dragged her off to the front of the house with a giggling Rolf and Boyd, who also started to chuckle when he came upon the scene, trailing behind them.

 "You know you don't have to be so harsh." Gwen mumbled as her laughing subsided. "I wasn't really going to jump in."

 "Damn straight you're not. Now, stop getting yourself hurt. If you get anymore bruises or scars people will start thinking I'm abusing you."

"You mean you don't?"

 "...I'll ground you."

 "Oh relax. We have healers now." she started, motioning to Mist and Rhys. The front of the small house slowly began to fill with their group as Rhys and Titania, who was currently lecturing Boyd for his tipsy state, joined them. She could even make out the unfocused blobs of the others across the small wooden bridge ahead; all waiting for them to be told to head towards the ship.

 She could feel Yale staring at her, either wanting to argue back, or apologize once again. Whatever it was got cut off by their noticing of Ike coming towards them with Soren strolling by his side. Gwen had a feeling that if she ever needed to find Soren she would only need to look for the commander.

 "Are you all set to go?" Ike asked the siblings while Soren gazed at her dirt covered hands. Gwen quickly hid them behind her back, trying to wipe them off on the already dirt covered cloak. It was a good thing that her skirt was a dark brown color, the mud barely showed up, her cloak on the other hand was a different story. The shorter mage felt a little nervous around him, she had seen his spells back at the prison, and it was amazing. Gwen had always thought that she was at an average level, that is, until she saw him at work. She knew he only saw her as a child playing pretend.

 "Gwen? "

 "What?" the young mage looked up at the blue haired commander, who cocked his head at her.

"Are you alright? "

"Yea, I'm fine. Just tripped is all."

 "I was mostly worried about your side."

 "Oh, It's all good, doesn't hurt at all anymore." that was a little bit of a lie, since her tumble it was starting to sting a little, but she didn't feel any need to worry over it.

 "It would be in the best interest of the company if you tell us your real condition." Soren stated while looking at her side. Gwen followed his line of sight and noticed a speck of blood forming on her tunic, right where her wound was.

 "Damn it, Gwen." Yale sculled as he pushed aside her cloak back to examine the wound better.

"I swear, I'm fine." she started pushing his hand away and looking apologetically at the other two, "Nothing a little vulnerary can't solve, right?" she smiled up at them as Yale shook his head.

"If you're not ready to fight, just tell us." Ike stated as he turned to return to the princess waiting for him at the end of the bridge.

 "But I am ready!" she called out in vain as the two continued to leave.

 She heard Yale mumble something to Mist before she felt a growing familiar sensation on her side. "You really are careless." she heard him grumble.

 "I'm not careless, and I can still fight." she grumbled right back before thanking Mist and then apologizing for the dirty clothes.

 The young cleric merely smiled at her. "Don't worry about it, I'm used to that sort of thing because of Boyd and Ike."

 "Okay..." Gwen still felt a little bad for being caught in a lie, and for getting herself hurt again. She would just be glad for when they were on a boat where they would hopefully get attacked by pirates. Maybe then I can show off my skills. Well, what little skills I do have. She thought while looking over at the other mage who stood next to Ilyana. Both were so powerful compared to her. It wasn't fair. The less advanced mage pulled out her tome and flipped it open to stare down at the letters laid out beneath her dirty fingertips. The beautifully written words were flowing across the dulled yellowed pages in pitch black ink. It was just so weird for her to read the tome. In her head, she could translate it and she knew what the words were telling her, but whenever she read them they spilled into her mind in the common language, not in the ancient words they were written in. This wouldn't seem so bad if it wasn't for the fact that she needed to say them out loud to actually do the spell. It was frustrating because, for the life of her, she couldn't pronounce the ancient language correctly. It was mean to blame her teacher, it wasn't the woman's fault she was nearly deaf, but it did make it impossible for her teacher to tell whether or not young Gwen was actually pronouncing the words right. The mage knew she was close to it, she could cast spells, but they were always clumsy and not nearly as powerful as they should be.

 The young mage jumped out of her thoughts at the feeling of Yale place a hand on her shoulder, pulling her close to him. Looking up, Gwen started to ask him what it was he wanted. Maybe we're leaving now. The look on his face told her a completely different story. She squinted her eyes to peer over in the direction he was gazing at and what she saw made her body shudder. She didn't need good eyes to see the platoon of Daein soldiers looming at the entrance of Toha, one holding something out in front of him while the horse he sat on stood unnaturally still.

 "Attention citizens! We've received reports of Crimean army stragglers hiding in this town! From this point, forth, the Daein army will blockade all points of entry! No one comes or goes without our leave! The harbor is also closed! No ships will be allowed to sail! "

 "Yale..." she murmured while pulling up her hood in order to hide her greening face.

 "Don't leave my side." he commanded in a deep murmured, making sure to pull her closer as the rest of the Princess's mercenaries slowly began to step away from the entrance; all hoping to leave the area without gaining any attention from the enemy.

 "Shit." Boyd mumbled as he reached for his axe before Titania stopped his hand.

 "Don't make any suspicious movements." she advised, making the suddenly sober fighter bring his hands back down to his side. The paladin then pulled her horse along as she headed off towards the direction of the commander, leaving them to stand in wait for their orders.

 "Should we just start going towards the ships?" Rolf asked in a whispered voice as he gripped his bow close to the body. Mist soon monitored for him to put his weapon back, just as Titania had done to his brother.

 "If they say that ships can't leave, wouldn't that look suspicious?" Rhys mentioned pulling up his own hood.

 Boyd scuffed at that "Who cares, they are all the way over there so we would have a head start."

 "And if, they have men at the harbor? "

"You think they do? "

 "Who's to say that they don't? "

 The fighter cursed, figuring that the priest was most likely right. Gwen wanted to join the conversation, to take her attention away from the soldiers but was stopped by the screaming of a young woman. While others merely jumped at the sound Gwen's body when rigged as the sound echoed in her head, causing her to drop the book on the ground as she quickly slammed her shaking hands over her ears. The sound was never blocked and continued to rake over her mind as more screams joined, old screams, screams that she knew would haunt her for years. She felt her stomach start to tighten as the taste of acid began to creep up her throat as the smell of blood filled her senses, her body started to rock back and forth, her eyes wide open, too afraid to close them. Her breath hitched when the screams of agony grew louder. She was trying to press against her ears harder but only caused her nails to dig further into her scalp, causing a sharp pain that almost shook her free from the sounds. She felt her body start to shake violently, she thought it was her own doing at first until she could finally hear Yale calling out for her.

 Her whole body kept it's rigged stance as she slowly moved her head up, allowing her eyes to meet Yale's. He's emotion was hard for her to pinpoint, it was a mixture of panic, anger and maybe even regret, it didn't take long however for anger to completely take over as she squeezed her shoulders tight before looking over where the Daeins where stationed. There had only been a few times in her life that she had seen that dark of a look on his face, when a group of bandits attacked her, after a doctor turned them away as she was sick: claiming that they were too dirty to be helped and two months ago, when that Daein soldier grabbed hold of her in that port town. Each time his face turned dark and venomous, like he was set out to kill, and Gwen wouldn't have been surprised if he did. He turned back to look at her as the citizens of Toha called out to the Daeins. His eyes still cold. He placed her tome back into her hands, making she was holding it tight.

 "I won't let them take you away again." he spoke under his breath in a dark voice as the people of the town started to cheer on someone that she knew wasn't on their side. Her body slowly loosened up as she looked behind her, starting at the ragged band of swordsmen running up along the path behind them, only stopping to stare down at Ike and Ranulf as they both slowly started to step back, Ike's hand steadily moved to the hilt of his sword. The young mage looked back up at the fighter that was also starting to withdraw the battered axes from his back, she turned around and saw Kieran hop on his horse and set his axe out to fight along with both Brom and Nephenee, who both took a solid grip on their laces. There was no fear in their faces only determination and she knew why.

 She took a few deep breaths to calm her nerves, to remember the promise she had made. Twenty-three, that's all I have to take care of, just twenty-three. The fear continued to exist in her mind but the anger and will power was starting to grow stronger. Yale was right, they could never take me away again, I don't have to be afraid of them. This wasn't the same situation, and if I tried hard enough I could do this, I can kill them.

**Author's Note:**

> I have already posted a few more chapters on my Fanfiction account, under the same account name, but I thought I'd share it here too.
> 
> Honesty is the best policy, so I you have any suggestions or critics please comment. I am crap when it comes to grammar and rely on spellcheck a lot for my spelling. I hope you will enjoy future chapters, just a for warning I am a college student who has to take a lot of classes and I'm also going to be playing the game while I write this on a tougher setting so I may be late in putting out a chapter simply because I haven't beaten the level yet. Wish me luck and I hope you enjoy the story, thank you.


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